Avoid Summer Schedule Overload
May 19th, 2008 by Amy
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As summer approaches, parents begin chit-chatting about what their children will be up to for the summer, "Billy will be doing softball for three weeks, swimming for two weeks, and then a special karate class for another three weeks. Then we will have made it through the summer and it’s back to school!"
During such discussions, I tend to avoid eye contact and nod enthusiastically about all their summer plans. Call me a slacker parent, but my kids have a whole heck of a lot of nothing planned for the summer. Yeah, I’m one of THOSE moms. While other parents are running at a frantic pace, my kids will be enjoying some time to just be a kid.
For some reason, during the summer season, many parents tend to go overboard on the classes and activities. I remember as a child how much I enjoyed just running around through the sprinklers,
getting ice cream, or taking a trip to the park. I do not remember as clearly the
classes that I took or the activities that my parents had paid for. It is so important
to allow our kids to be kids! Kids really do remember the little outings that you
do with them and often these outings and time spent with them have a greater impact then four weeks of camp will.
Just keep in mind that this is their summer vacation too. I know that I do not enjoy having every
single minute of my vacation booked with things to do; likewise children enjoy having some downtime. Try to keep this in mind when signing them up for various summer
programs. Maybe allowing your child to pick one or two activities during the summer will be more manageable for both you (the driver) and your child.
Whatever you do, remember that the thing they are going to remember the most is what you guys did together. Allow them those kinds of memories and don’t be afraid to enjoy a whole lot of nothing with them!
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May 19th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
Amen to this!! I am one of THOSE moms too. We don’t do a lot, yet we do. I wouldn’t trade it either!!
May 20th, 2008 at 9:31 am
What is our families biggest plans for this summer? Once (sometimes twice) weekly “Lake Days”.
We live about 40 minutes from Lake Tahoe and a group of us mom’s get together and hit the lake. We get there at 10AM and don’t leave until sunset on most trips.
Our only other planned activities are a “Craft Day” in my backyard for a huge group of kids from our church and a camping trip at the beginning of August. Other than that we are free to be spontaneous!
*Sigh* We can’t wait!