In these short 7 days, we’ve had tennis camp, dance recital, softball, soccer, karate, tennis lesson, and even a doctor appointment thrown in there for swimmer’s ear, which, ironically, we haven’t even been swimming though the pool has been ready for 4 days. Seven am on day 7 and I’m already exhausted, and my kids haven't even woken up yet. We have another full, and, for me, extremely stressful day today. Seven days into summer vacation last year, we had already hiked 5 different parks, had karate (but on Zoom) and maybe a tennis lesson. Instead of planning super fast meals and scrambling to get them on the table no later than 5pm, we were relaxing and swimming in the pool until I felt like making dinner.
I love that my kids are involved in things. I think it’s great for their development. I believe being involved in activities helps them to be more well rounded and responsible individuals. They learn how to make choices and sacrifices and prioritize because we can not do it all. Yet, there’s something to say about that calm that we all had last summer. My kids were not bored. I can’t tell you the amount of people who complained because there was nothing to do and their kids were bored. My kids are too active and imaginative to be bored. Of course they had their moments of boredom, we all do. Those moments were few and far between. Our calendar may not have been packed, but our days were full. At 11 and 14, my kids got to relax and be kids for the first time in a long time.
I don’t think I anticipated how hard it was going to be getting back to “normal”. The beginning of May, everything hit at once and it has not slowed down. We went from nothing to chaos in what seemed like moments. I love our crazy, busy life, but I do really miss the slow pace of last summer. I am thankful for the time my kids got to just be kids. We only have three short summers left with Monster. He has so many adult responsibilities already at 15 that I’m forever grateful he got one last summer to be a kid.
My hope is that we can get into a rhythm here and find time to embrace the lazy days of summer. I’m fighting so many of my own demons coming off of this pandemic and I’m hoping to find some peace again. I hope that my kids remember last summer with fondness and strive to find some of that peace and quiet again when they can. I hope that my kids realize that our greatest gift is time.