Summer as a parent is so weird. Sometimes I love the lack of structure, sometimes I hate it. Sometimes I love the warm weather activities with kids, sometimes I hate them. I feel both that summer feels more frenetic than the school year AND that I want it to last longer? And maybe it’s a holdover from my own childhood, but regret, nostalgia, and dread always set in once August hits.
Harry wants summer to last forever.
So I’d love to know - how has your summer been? Do you miss it already or are you counting down the days until school starts?
My daughter’s birthday is at the beginning of August. Between that and the imminent end of summer, I feel a lot of grief and happiness at once - a lot of looking back and seeing how beautiful it all is, and wondering if I was “there” for it all/made the most of it.
I hate summer. I wish ‘summer break’ was October to December when we could really enjoy time outside, activities and delicious food. It would also make it easier to see family you’re pressured to see when everyone knows you’re out of school -as if everything else is off too 🙄. And it would give our beach town back to us locals in the summer which would be freakin’ lovely.
As a woman in the final throes of her menopause transition, this summer has been… hot. I’ve never liked the heat, and this has been ridic. I’m also an empty-nester with a kid in college, so August means tuition’s due, lol. I happen to LOVE fall, as a Northeast gal I get to enjoy brilliant leaves, crisp mornings followed by warmish afternoons, the outdoors regardless of time-of-day. Despite being 55 & WAY outa school, September brings all the “fresh start” vibes.
The grass is truly always greener apparently. I've been feeling like all the other parents in my community have way more flexibility than I have (freelance or part time or home full time or summers off), even though I intellectually know that I am not the only parent who has to continue to work full time in the summer. My son has been in camp all day every day bc I need to save my vacation days for the week between the end of camp and the start of school. I feel sad for him that he has no lazy time to just sleep late and then do nothing and sad for myself that the daily lunch and snack packing and school year slog is really unchanged and will continue to be unchanged year after year. I signed him up for ten consecutive weeks of camp at six am in January despite being practically delirious with a post-surgical fever and was absolutely grateful he got a spot. However, I remain bitter that I can't sign him up for any of the really interesting camps like theater or soccer or foraging or whatever bc they all run 9-3 with no option for before or after care, which is obviously not consistent with having a full-time job. All that said, reading these comments about bored and grumpy children and stress about unstructured time makes me feel marginally better.
Trust me —having them sit around all day saying how bored they are and how they are sick and tired of the pool that you spent a fortune on a membership for and then they fight all the time… it really is just wearing me down.
Oh dear lord the childcare woes. Just found out school is starting on the Wednesday after Labor Day instead of Tuesday (even though it has always started on the Tuesday, since I was a kid in this same school system lo these many years ago, and WTF am I supposed to do with my kid on that random Tuesday? After the previous week, during which there are no camps offered because it is the week before school starts?)
I love parts of summer but the camp/childcare roulette is not one of them. This was my first summer as a mom of a kid in public school and though I did prepare in January-February it was still a lot. Camp feels like more work than school at times.
I also love fall so I don’t feel dread—that doesn’t usually set in until mid-January…
Our summer is over already :( Here in Indiana kids get out of school before Memorial Day and go back the first week of August. I HATE IT. August is the most "summery" of months to me so for the kids to be back in school for the whole month is criminal! Elect me president and I'll make the school year go from Labor Day to late June as god intended!
I really don't like summer. I live in a very hot place, and getting the basics done (grocery shopping, a little exercise here and there) is uncomfortable. In addition, with a history of skin cancer, I have to cover up more than the average person, so I'm doubly hot.
Oh my gosh, yes. I’m home with my three kids and it’s always both a relief (less structure and running around) and a Herculean effort (figuring out what to do with a 5, 9, and 12 year old every day on a very tight budget). But by the last few weeks I also feel the sweetness of all this time with them and the pressure lifts a little.
I always picture the last week before school (no camp) as being this blissful chill time and it never isssss sob. Part of it is my kids just have completely disparate personalties and interests so if I"m not scheduling playdates it's a shitshow.
Yeah I feel this too. There’s no chill days at home at this point in our life, the kids bicker too much! I was spoiled by a twin sister whose interests aligned very closely with mine and we really didn’t argue much after about age 5 and my mom says it was fairly relaxing to stay home and watch tv, go to the apartment pool and read books in the summer.
I used to love summer. My daughter and niece’s birthdays are at the end of May and my mom’s is at the beginning of June so I usually have a a big family blowout at the beginning of summer. I loved being outside gardening, reading, doing my work on the deck, etc. But the last few summers have really felt like a slog. So many birthday parties to start between friends and family, that we all get super exhausted and two years ago my husband got COVID for almost 2 weeks as a result. We’ve had extremely hot weather, thunderstorms, residual bad weather from hurricanes and wildfire smoke keeping us inside more. This year, our 20 year old AC died during a heatwave. We usually do 3-4 weeks of day camp which helps with work somewhat but they all start and end at different times which is a lot to coordinate and there goes the break from making packed lunch everyday! We always go on vacation in August which I look forward to and am so grateful to be able to do but I do most of the planning and prep for it so until we’re there it’s a lot of added stress. My birthday is at the end of August right around our school start which brings a lot of emotion about the passage of time and change. I also have the grief from losing a friend to a car accident and another to cancer that crops up around the same time every year like clock work. My depression is oddly worse during the summer, I think because I don’t have enough quiet thinking time and time to just get shit done in general. I love spending more time with my daughter, going to the community center pool and having lazy days where we don’t do much and enjoy each others company. But summer overall often feels like a lot of pressure without the reward.
I'm so sorry about the loss of both your friends Amanda - it makes total sense (along with everything else) that the end of summer is tough for you. I feel like there's also an added sense of isolation with depression that occurs when people are "supposed" to be fun and happy and whatever. I had some summer depression last year and it was disorienting - rather than like, February depression or whatever.
It is disorienting! Last summer was the first summer it hit me really hard starting in July. In the winter at least the expectation is that you’re staying in more!
I realized last year that my depression is always worse in the summer, as well! It’s like reverse SAD. I think it’s because of the heat and humidity and the chaos and feeling an expectation of joy and freedom…but just sweating and yelling at my kids or feeling guilty over screen time or embracing summer and feeling guilty about not working more.
I started this summer with a lot of dread and resentment--how camp isn't actually meant to be childcare and yet that's how we're all using it; the cost of camp; the way my kids struggle with the lack of structure and the grumpy exhaustion post-camp; how I should lean into the downseason that summer is in my work (fundraising) but felt guilty doing so.
And then the Olympics kicked in and basically saved summer for me. I'm honestly dreading them ending?! Especially because it's timed exactly as we enter into the two week black hole where I still have to work but have no childcare and if I had more than 15 days of PTO I'd just take time off, but this is the good ol' U S of A.
My son (7) goes back a week from today. Our summer is 7 weeks, and it felt fun but really fragmented - a few days of day camp, 2 weeks at the grandparents, day camp, cousins trip to the seaside, juggling + cousin's visit, and concluding with a grandma visit.
I'm looking forward to some more routine - and a full work week (knock on wood, a sick kid is really rare) but wish we had some more 1-on-1 adventures. Trying to think through back-to-school routines and just settling in.
I'm an academic and I feel like I always assume summer will be really productive writing time, and it's just not? Like I had two things that were 80% done at the start of the summer, and finished those off, but everything else on my to do list is at much earlier stages so progress felt really incremental. I've done 10 research interviews but have 10 more to do, and then what...? Luckily I'm not teaching in the autumn, so hoping that when I come back from a friend trip at the end of August, I'll be able to settle into a more steady weekly rhythym.
As a fellow 7 week summer person it feels VERY short and fragmented! And I never feel like I get anything done so then I have this whole spiral about having my kids in childcare and not even being productive “enough.”
I grew up in the Bay Area and now live in Scotland and a short summer was the norm in both (as a child, we went back late July), but it does feel fragmented. I think it's best when we leave for my parents' the day after school lets out, and then spend 3 weeks there, so we're halfway done. But camp schedules are really sporadic here and I've not made any progress in understanding how and when camps are run.
Around the last week of July, I start really looking forward to having school back in session since it means more consistent child care. I don't really want to rush the month, though. But summer is very chaotic. I work 2 part time jobs that are both out of the house, and I'm constantly running around to get kids to a camp, or relieve my husband of childcare, so he can work. There is rarely time for addressing head scratching, big deal projects like replacing our car or refrigerator that just died and require time without kids jumping around on/near you. I'm pretty pooped.
I'm mourning the end of summer, even though I am ready for it, because I need to get back to my writing work with solid blocks of time. But part of me thinks that if I didn't NEED to work and hustle all the time, I'd be happy with an endless summer. My kids are at fun ages, and I just want to hang out with them.
After this summer I could do with some time in a sensory deprivation tank! Things have felt very scattered and any form of mental productivity has been nonexistent, and it’s just been too darn hot to refuel with those idealized summer moments. I am grateful for the getaways and time in the water, seeing family. Squeezing in one more trip at the end of August and the goal is to just relax and enjoy without other expectations.
oh my gosh a sensory deprivation tank should be REQUIRED for parents post summer lol. and YES my intellectual capabilities in general during the summer - EFFORT.
It’s my first week off soooo…it’s still summer here and things are grand. ;)
I mean, it’s only August 7. I guess it depends where you live as well but when I lived in Germany, school didn’t end until beginning or mid July so August was vacation time and we didn’t start school until the beginning of September. In France, where I lived for a while, August is dead zone in cities because everyone is away. 😂
In Canada, kids start school at the very end of August or beginning of September so things are quiet at the moment and everyone is still enjoying summer
August is always a big transition. For the last 11 years, my husband has started daily morning soccer practice on August 1 so it’s the big shift back to being in season for high school soccer. I think about Tami Taylor and Coach Taylor every year- husband makes a good halftime speech!
We were trying to have fun before school started this week and I was wearing myself out going to all our favorite places in our city. 2 years ago we got COVID the week before my 7 yo started K so I was very much trying to make up for that with our youngest. The most fun thing we did was watching 2 hours of Eras Movie on their last night before school and influencing my boys to become Swifties is my proudest parenting moment. My therapist and I discussed how this is a rough time of year for me and I am trying to keep my expectations low.
First day of K yesterday went well and we are very happy to have the same K teacher again. my kid predictably had an overtired meltdown around 7:30 pm and was very hard to settle- looked at my husband like we knew this was coming and it’s fine! We have been through this transition before and we will make it through again.
I’m not a summer gal. The kids are miserable in the heat (2.5, 8 months). I like the pool and beach, but my husband LOVES summer, whereas for me there are few compensations. But we’re surviving, maybe even thriving?
Today I was having a lovely afternoon at the beach with my children and my oldest is 16. He saw a group of teens at the beach and was sad because he felt that none had invited him to go hang out at the beach this summer that he was a loser and suddenly his whole summer was a loss because no Group of teens had asked him to hang out when I don’t even know if teens are really hanging out this year besides all their summer class taking, summer jobs, and test preparation that I am seeing. Sigh!
Never thought I'd say this back in June/July, but now that it's August and school starts in a matter of weeks, I'm already missing the unencumbered days of summer!
I have a love/hate relationship with summer. Every year I intend to go against my core TYPE A personality and decide to just “relax” and “wing it”…”take some spontaneous trips to nearby big cities”…
Then summer ends up having no structure and way too much screen time and I feel simultaneously bored and overwhelmed. Plus it’s so freaking hot and muggy that I have no desire to do anything!
The only saving grace is the amazing fresh produce. Give me three months off beginning in October and I’d be MUCH happier!
I work in the summer camp industry (but from my home office), so this is what we work towards all year yet it’s a relentless grind once it’s here, set against the backdrop of what feels like the entire world posting life-slowed-down pics of popsicles and beach vacations and pool days with their kids while I’m stuck in an office sometimes 16-18 hours A DAY during three months of vacation blackout days solving a never-ending onslaught of other people’s problems. In some ways I love my job but also the seasonal aspect of it means I’m always focused on looking ahead instead of living in the now and it’s made an otherwise lovely season fly by for most of my professional life. Watching the kids eat an apple in the kitchen then play outside then come back in for a glass of whatever then back outside then in out in out in out all day rather aimlessly makes me long for that time. That’s said, whenever I do get a taste of it (kayaking after work, an ice cream cone, OMG the BEACH whatever) it’s absolutely delightful. So I think I love summer, I just suffer from a little extra envy this time of year.
I don’t love summer because I don’t like being hot although I do love swimming so that helps. Also, historically summer child care is a nightmare but now that my kids are 19 and 16, childcare isn’t as much of an issue but grocery shopping and food prep are. I feel like that’s all I do right now. August is usually my least favorite month; I just feel like I’m trying to endure until the weather cools, the kids go back to school, and fall, my favorite time of year rolls around. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve been able to find things I like about each season and that helps. Yes it’s hot but summer evenings outside are pleasant, the berries are sweet and juicy, having my kids around, laughing and being silly, is really nice even if they still don’t always remember to clean up their dishes…
I have some mixed feelings about summer. This one was a doozy for our family, but we have some very chill weekends before we are incredibly busy September, October & November. We have little kids in daycare full time, though our oldest is starting 3k in 2 weeks.
I'm looking forward to some slow weekends, not being pregnant (I was incredibly pregnant last summer), being outside at home with our little family, and soaking in our kids before the craziness starts. I remind myself often that summer for me growing up was a bunch of little things that signified a season, not big grand plans every weekend.
I don't feel like I accomplished what I wanted, but I also know that we will get it done eventually. I'm trying not to "hurry" seasons by getting into pumpkin spice too early, but rather enjoying the heirloom tomatoes of August with fresh sourdough bread. I'm intentionally attempting to slow down.
My husband is the breadwinner and has been working a lot more than he wanted to this summer culminating in a weeklong conference in Dallas (in the summer!!) before we start his 2 week stretch of vacation that at the moment has no plans attached to it because I’m a horrible vacation planner and yet I am the one in charge of these things. This summer I was determined to not let it all slip away, to have adventures with my daughter because she’s 9 and it feels like she’s about to move out. I didn’t overschedule, or at least I didn’t think I had. And yet we’ve been on too many consecutive trips and camps without much relaxing. Is relaxing a thing? I booked an airbnb for 3 nights on a local PNW island and had dreams of sitting on the deck with a coffee or a cocktail reading. But there weren’t enough outside chairs and they had some bugs on them so I had to clean them first. by the time I started to relax, it was time for me to get us rallied to go for a hike or go find dinner or whatever I am suppose to do as the cruise director or this ship.
I don’t look forward to fall because that’s when the weather turns and everything starts to die. But I admit I am looking forward to briefly longish stretches of 6 whole hours with which I can sit and read, paint, workout, or taking a fucking nap (a nap!!) without explaining it to anyone.
My daughter’s birthday is at the beginning of August. Between that and the imminent end of summer, I feel a lot of grief and happiness at once - a lot of looking back and seeing how beautiful it all is, and wondering if I was “there” for it all/made the most of it.
yuppppppp
“Wondering if I was there for it all/made for most of it.” This!
I am decidedly not made for whatever this is and yet I want to be present in it. Enjoy whatever we have.
I hate summer. I wish ‘summer break’ was October to December when we could really enjoy time outside, activities and delicious food. It would also make it easier to see family you’re pressured to see when everyone knows you’re out of school -as if everything else is off too 🙄. And it would give our beach town back to us locals in the summer which would be freakin’ lovely.
August makes me feel nostalgic for May..all of summer stretching ahead...
ugh YES
Oh absolutely. Everyone is so excited for fall but I’m thinking I’ve already missed it.
As a woman in the final throes of her menopause transition, this summer has been… hot. I’ve never liked the heat, and this has been ridic. I’m also an empty-nester with a kid in college, so August means tuition’s due, lol. I happen to LOVE fall, as a Northeast gal I get to enjoy brilliant leaves, crisp mornings followed by warmish afternoons, the outdoors regardless of time-of-day. Despite being 55 & WAY outa school, September brings all the “fresh start” vibes.
The grass is truly always greener apparently. I've been feeling like all the other parents in my community have way more flexibility than I have (freelance or part time or home full time or summers off), even though I intellectually know that I am not the only parent who has to continue to work full time in the summer. My son has been in camp all day every day bc I need to save my vacation days for the week between the end of camp and the start of school. I feel sad for him that he has no lazy time to just sleep late and then do nothing and sad for myself that the daily lunch and snack packing and school year slog is really unchanged and will continue to be unchanged year after year. I signed him up for ten consecutive weeks of camp at six am in January despite being practically delirious with a post-surgical fever and was absolutely grateful he got a spot. However, I remain bitter that I can't sign him up for any of the really interesting camps like theater or soccer or foraging or whatever bc they all run 9-3 with no option for before or after care, which is obviously not consistent with having a full-time job. All that said, reading these comments about bored and grumpy children and stress about unstructured time makes me feel marginally better.
Trust me —having them sit around all day saying how bored they are and how they are sick and tired of the pool that you spent a fortune on a membership for and then they fight all the time… it really is just wearing me down.
Oh dear lord the childcare woes. Just found out school is starting on the Wednesday after Labor Day instead of Tuesday (even though it has always started on the Tuesday, since I was a kid in this same school system lo these many years ago, and WTF am I supposed to do with my kid on that random Tuesday? After the previous week, during which there are no camps offered because it is the week before school starts?)
I love parts of summer but the camp/childcare roulette is not one of them. This was my first summer as a mom of a kid in public school and though I did prepare in January-February it was still a lot. Camp feels like more work than school at times.
I also love fall so I don’t feel dread—that doesn’t usually set in until mid-January…
Our summer is over already :( Here in Indiana kids get out of school before Memorial Day and go back the first week of August. I HATE IT. August is the most "summery" of months to me so for the kids to be back in school for the whole month is criminal! Elect me president and I'll make the school year go from Labor Day to late June as god intended!
I really don't like summer. I live in a very hot place, and getting the basics done (grocery shopping, a little exercise here and there) is uncomfortable. In addition, with a history of skin cancer, I have to cover up more than the average person, so I'm doubly hot.
Oh my gosh, yes. I’m home with my three kids and it’s always both a relief (less structure and running around) and a Herculean effort (figuring out what to do with a 5, 9, and 12 year old every day on a very tight budget). But by the last few weeks I also feel the sweetness of all this time with them and the pressure lifts a little.
I always picture the last week before school (no camp) as being this blissful chill time and it never isssss sob. Part of it is my kids just have completely disparate personalties and interests so if I"m not scheduling playdates it's a shitshow.
Yeah I feel this too. There’s no chill days at home at this point in our life, the kids bicker too much! I was spoiled by a twin sister whose interests aligned very closely with mine and we really didn’t argue much after about age 5 and my mom says it was fairly relaxing to stay home and watch tv, go to the apartment pool and read books in the summer.
This
I used to love summer. My daughter and niece’s birthdays are at the end of May and my mom’s is at the beginning of June so I usually have a a big family blowout at the beginning of summer. I loved being outside gardening, reading, doing my work on the deck, etc. But the last few summers have really felt like a slog. So many birthday parties to start between friends and family, that we all get super exhausted and two years ago my husband got COVID for almost 2 weeks as a result. We’ve had extremely hot weather, thunderstorms, residual bad weather from hurricanes and wildfire smoke keeping us inside more. This year, our 20 year old AC died during a heatwave. We usually do 3-4 weeks of day camp which helps with work somewhat but they all start and end at different times which is a lot to coordinate and there goes the break from making packed lunch everyday! We always go on vacation in August which I look forward to and am so grateful to be able to do but I do most of the planning and prep for it so until we’re there it’s a lot of added stress. My birthday is at the end of August right around our school start which brings a lot of emotion about the passage of time and change. I also have the grief from losing a friend to a car accident and another to cancer that crops up around the same time every year like clock work. My depression is oddly worse during the summer, I think because I don’t have enough quiet thinking time and time to just get shit done in general. I love spending more time with my daughter, going to the community center pool and having lazy days where we don’t do much and enjoy each others company. But summer overall often feels like a lot of pressure without the reward.
I'm so sorry about the loss of both your friends Amanda - it makes total sense (along with everything else) that the end of summer is tough for you. I feel like there's also an added sense of isolation with depression that occurs when people are "supposed" to be fun and happy and whatever. I had some summer depression last year and it was disorienting - rather than like, February depression or whatever.
It is disorienting! Last summer was the first summer it hit me really hard starting in July. In the winter at least the expectation is that you’re staying in more!
I realized last year that my depression is always worse in the summer, as well! It’s like reverse SAD. I think it’s because of the heat and humidity and the chaos and feeling an expectation of joy and freedom…but just sweating and yelling at my kids or feeling guilty over screen time or embracing summer and feeling guilty about not working more.
I started this summer with a lot of dread and resentment--how camp isn't actually meant to be childcare and yet that's how we're all using it; the cost of camp; the way my kids struggle with the lack of structure and the grumpy exhaustion post-camp; how I should lean into the downseason that summer is in my work (fundraising) but felt guilty doing so.
And then the Olympics kicked in and basically saved summer for me. I'm honestly dreading them ending?! Especially because it's timed exactly as we enter into the two week black hole where I still have to work but have no childcare and if I had more than 15 days of PTO I'd just take time off, but this is the good ol' U S of A.
Y U P
My son (7) goes back a week from today. Our summer is 7 weeks, and it felt fun but really fragmented - a few days of day camp, 2 weeks at the grandparents, day camp, cousins trip to the seaside, juggling + cousin's visit, and concluding with a grandma visit.
I'm looking forward to some more routine - and a full work week (knock on wood, a sick kid is really rare) but wish we had some more 1-on-1 adventures. Trying to think through back-to-school routines and just settling in.
I'm an academic and I feel like I always assume summer will be really productive writing time, and it's just not? Like I had two things that were 80% done at the start of the summer, and finished those off, but everything else on my to do list is at much earlier stages so progress felt really incremental. I've done 10 research interviews but have 10 more to do, and then what...? Luckily I'm not teaching in the autumn, so hoping that when I come back from a friend trip at the end of August, I'll be able to settle into a more steady weekly rhythym.
YUP I had very grand plans re working on a book proposal and aside from a big google doc full of scattered thoughts, nothing really happened.
As a fellow 7 week summer person it feels VERY short and fragmented! And I never feel like I get anything done so then I have this whole spiral about having my kids in childcare and not even being productive “enough.”
I grew up in the Bay Area and now live in Scotland and a short summer was the norm in both (as a child, we went back late July), but it does feel fragmented. I think it's best when we leave for my parents' the day after school lets out, and then spend 3 weeks there, so we're halfway done. But camp schedules are really sporadic here and I've not made any progress in understanding how and when camps are run.
Around the last week of July, I start really looking forward to having school back in session since it means more consistent child care. I don't really want to rush the month, though. But summer is very chaotic. I work 2 part time jobs that are both out of the house, and I'm constantly running around to get kids to a camp, or relieve my husband of childcare, so he can work. There is rarely time for addressing head scratching, big deal projects like replacing our car or refrigerator that just died and require time without kids jumping around on/near you. I'm pretty pooped.
completely hear you.
Our refrigerator just died after eight years, which is another good topic for a blog because why did it only last eight years
I'm mourning the end of summer, even though I am ready for it, because I need to get back to my writing work with solid blocks of time. But part of me thinks that if I didn't NEED to work and hustle all the time, I'd be happy with an endless summer. My kids are at fun ages, and I just want to hang out with them.
I so hear you! The good days are GOOD.
After this summer I could do with some time in a sensory deprivation tank! Things have felt very scattered and any form of mental productivity has been nonexistent, and it’s just been too darn hot to refuel with those idealized summer moments. I am grateful for the getaways and time in the water, seeing family. Squeezing in one more trip at the end of August and the goal is to just relax and enjoy without other expectations.
oh my gosh a sensory deprivation tank should be REQUIRED for parents post summer lol. and YES my intellectual capabilities in general during the summer - EFFORT.
It’s my first week off soooo…it’s still summer here and things are grand. ;)
I mean, it’s only August 7. I guess it depends where you live as well but when I lived in Germany, school didn’t end until beginning or mid July so August was vacation time and we didn’t start school until the beginning of September. In France, where I lived for a while, August is dead zone in cities because everyone is away. 😂
In Canada, kids start school at the very end of August or beginning of September so things are quiet at the moment and everyone is still enjoying summer
August is always a big transition. For the last 11 years, my husband has started daily morning soccer practice on August 1 so it’s the big shift back to being in season for high school soccer. I think about Tami Taylor and Coach Taylor every year- husband makes a good halftime speech!
We were trying to have fun before school started this week and I was wearing myself out going to all our favorite places in our city. 2 years ago we got COVID the week before my 7 yo started K so I was very much trying to make up for that with our youngest. The most fun thing we did was watching 2 hours of Eras Movie on their last night before school and influencing my boys to become Swifties is my proudest parenting moment. My therapist and I discussed how this is a rough time of year for me and I am trying to keep my expectations low.
First day of K yesterday went well and we are very happy to have the same K teacher again. my kid predictably had an overtired meltdown around 7:30 pm and was very hard to settle- looked at my husband like we knew this was coming and it’s fine! We have been through this transition before and we will make it through again.
ooof yup august childcare is always sort the worst in terms of availability!
I’m not a summer gal. The kids are miserable in the heat (2.5, 8 months). I like the pool and beach, but my husband LOVES summer, whereas for me there are few compensations. But we’re surviving, maybe even thriving?
Today I was having a lovely afternoon at the beach with my children and my oldest is 16. He saw a group of teens at the beach and was sad because he felt that none had invited him to go hang out at the beach this summer that he was a loser and suddenly his whole summer was a loss because no Group of teens had asked him to hang out when I don’t even know if teens are really hanging out this year besides all their summer class taking, summer jobs, and test preparation that I am seeing. Sigh!
ugh SO HARD
Never thought I'd say this back in June/July, but now that it's August and school starts in a matter of weeks, I'm already missing the unencumbered days of summer!
I get it. I don’t want to start waking up at 6 again. I don’t want it to get dark at 4pm again.
I have a love/hate relationship with summer. Every year I intend to go against my core TYPE A personality and decide to just “relax” and “wing it”…”take some spontaneous trips to nearby big cities”…
Then summer ends up having no structure and way too much screen time and I feel simultaneously bored and overwhelmed. Plus it’s so freaking hot and muggy that I have no desire to do anything!
The only saving grace is the amazing fresh produce. Give me three months off beginning in October and I’d be MUCH happier!
ugh YES i find "free time" alwaysssss ends up in "i'm bored" and me succumbing to the lure of the screen
Hmm. Maybe not a love-hate after all. Mostly a hate 😂
I work in the summer camp industry (but from my home office), so this is what we work towards all year yet it’s a relentless grind once it’s here, set against the backdrop of what feels like the entire world posting life-slowed-down pics of popsicles and beach vacations and pool days with their kids while I’m stuck in an office sometimes 16-18 hours A DAY during three months of vacation blackout days solving a never-ending onslaught of other people’s problems. In some ways I love my job but also the seasonal aspect of it means I’m always focused on looking ahead instead of living in the now and it’s made an otherwise lovely season fly by for most of my professional life. Watching the kids eat an apple in the kitchen then play outside then come back in for a glass of whatever then back outside then in out in out in out all day rather aimlessly makes me long for that time. That’s said, whenever I do get a taste of it (kayaking after work, an ice cream cone, OMG the BEACH whatever) it’s absolutely delightful. So I think I love summer, I just suffer from a little extra envy this time of year.
that makes COMPLETE sense - truly can't fathom navigating the sundry issues that arise re all things camp.
I don’t love summer because I don’t like being hot although I do love swimming so that helps. Also, historically summer child care is a nightmare but now that my kids are 19 and 16, childcare isn’t as much of an issue but grocery shopping and food prep are. I feel like that’s all I do right now. August is usually my least favorite month; I just feel like I’m trying to endure until the weather cools, the kids go back to school, and fall, my favorite time of year rolls around. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve been able to find things I like about each season and that helps. Yes it’s hot but summer evenings outside are pleasant, the berries are sweet and juicy, having my kids around, laughing and being silly, is really nice even if they still don’t always remember to clean up their dishes…
I would love for someone to hang out outside with me in the evening eating summer berries.
I have some mixed feelings about summer. This one was a doozy for our family, but we have some very chill weekends before we are incredibly busy September, October & November. We have little kids in daycare full time, though our oldest is starting 3k in 2 weeks.
I'm looking forward to some slow weekends, not being pregnant (I was incredibly pregnant last summer), being outside at home with our little family, and soaking in our kids before the craziness starts. I remind myself often that summer for me growing up was a bunch of little things that signified a season, not big grand plans every weekend.
I don't feel like I accomplished what I wanted, but I also know that we will get it done eventually. I'm trying not to "hurry" seasons by getting into pumpkin spice too early, but rather enjoying the heirloom tomatoes of August with fresh sourdough bread. I'm intentionally attempting to slow down.
YES I've been trying to eat tomatoes every day ha.
I’m still waiting on our local tomatoes. Stupid PNW.
I love summer, despite the bugs. I'm an August baby so summer has always been full of nostalgia and fun and hope.
But now with my first summer with a kiddo home with no back up childcare....am looking up all the summer camps for next year. :-P
lol get ready for january and february
I'm already mentally girding my loins on that one!
My husband is the breadwinner and has been working a lot more than he wanted to this summer culminating in a weeklong conference in Dallas (in the summer!!) before we start his 2 week stretch of vacation that at the moment has no plans attached to it because I’m a horrible vacation planner and yet I am the one in charge of these things. This summer I was determined to not let it all slip away, to have adventures with my daughter because she’s 9 and it feels like she’s about to move out. I didn’t overschedule, or at least I didn’t think I had. And yet we’ve been on too many consecutive trips and camps without much relaxing. Is relaxing a thing? I booked an airbnb for 3 nights on a local PNW island and had dreams of sitting on the deck with a coffee or a cocktail reading. But there weren’t enough outside chairs and they had some bugs on them so I had to clean them first. by the time I started to relax, it was time for me to get us rallied to go for a hike or go find dinner or whatever I am suppose to do as the cruise director or this ship.
I don’t look forward to fall because that’s when the weather turns and everything starts to die. But I admit I am looking forward to briefly longish stretches of 6 whole hours with which I can sit and read, paint, workout, or taking a fucking nap (a nap!!) without explaining it to anyone.