The end of the school year is a frenzied
dash to the finish line, each day and night filled with events: awards
ceremonies, dances, final games and tournaments, graduations, school trips,
parties, and picnics, and end-of-year, graduation, and June birthday parties. The overarching feeling is Summer Is Coming! It challenges proficient
calendar jugglers to keep up with all the dates, times, and logistics.
It’s exhausting, and when the
kids come home with their backpacks, frayed notebooks, piles of papers, and
stubs of eraserless pencils, it mercifully ends, and vacation begins.
School-sponsored activities are
done, and summer-sponsored activities take over.
Camps. Sleepovers. Swimming.
Family trips. Yard sales. Library
visits. Movies. Reunions.
Cookouts. Theme parks. TV. Video
games.
Driven by my enmity toward the listless
wails of “We’re bored,” I suggest more activities.
“Take a bike ride.” “Invite a
friend over.” “Come to the store with me.”
“Bake something.” “Clean your
room.”
For the love of everything holy,
Clean Your Room.
Vacation days are longer than school
days. Charged with filling the hours
with activities of our own making, we start out strong, but eventually the
burden of this task causes our summer vacation buzz to fade around the second week
of summer.
My days don’t
change much. Laundry still needs to be
done and the dishwasher needs to be emptied.
Food shopping must still happen; bills still need to be paid. Doctor appointments continue to be made and
kept.
But.
Wake-up and bed-times are more fluid. Meals are later, casual. Ice cream and popsicles become regular
dietary supplements. Naps are encouraged
and taken. Socks are forgotten and flip-flops
take over. Friends come and go more
often; neighbors emerge from their homes and have driveway conversations.
Summer vacation isn’t just a
vacation from school. It’s a vacation
from the norm; familiarly anticipated freedoms take the place of schedules and
prescribed tasks. Learning is done at a
different pace and in different environments.
And everyone has been kissed by the sun.
I romanticize summer every year,
thinking this one will be different, that this year we will have enough to do,
that no one will wander aimlessly around, that when school finally starts in
the fall, we will all look back over the past ten weeks and remark “Wow. That was the best summer ever.”
No one ever says that. Every summer around here looks mostly the
same.
And that’s just fine.
*******
This post inspired by:
Mama Kat's Writing Workshop
Prompt #2: Write
a blog post inspired by the word: vacation.
My kids are teens now so I don't have to fill their every waking minute. As a matter of fact, I have a full time job outside of the home so they pretty much have to entertain themselves. Now that they are both old enough now to not be at day camp, I don't have to worry about packing lunches anymore and can just leave them sleeping rather than dragging their asses out of bed while trying to get ready for work. I'm really looking forward to that :)
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your summer!
I like that independence, too. It's when they still want something to do that I feel like I've let the ball drop.Then I realize they're old enough to entertain themselves, and I let those feelings go. But the old "mommyhood" lingers.
DeleteI am just about to start the school thing with my four year old starting next week. I am dreading the early morning starts and mad rush around. I will be living for the holidays so I can sleep in a bit, until of course they start with the 'I'm bored' routine...
ReplyDeleteIt's always something...
DeleteBeautiful summary of summertime with kids, Andrea. Yes, "for the love of everything holy", may this be the summer that they really clean their rooms!
ReplyDeleteI mean, it isn't that hard, is it?
DeleteThank you!
We love summer and am so excited to get it started:)
ReplyDeleteOur first day is today! It's glooooorious. :)
DeleteWe. Are. Living. The. Same. Life.
ReplyDeleteRIGHT? :) At least we're in good company.
DeleteMay your summer be awesome. Like last year. :)
ReplyDelete