Summer used to be one of my favorite seasons, especially here in New England. I love the sunny days with still coolish nights. I love having a garden, harvesting and enjoying our own fresh veggies. I love buying sweet summer corn from our favorite farmstand and other goodies from the local farmer's market. I like grilling steak tips and burgers, being able to sit outside on the porch with my iced latte (AM) or a frozen margarita (PM), both prepared perfectly by my DH. I love walks in the park and trips to the beach with the kids, no homework to monitor, more flexible bedtimes, lots of downtime and less of a set routine...at least for a while...but it is possible to have too much of a good thing.
All of this free time with the cherubs is just fine and dandy until around August when boredom starts to set in. That's when the summer idyll begins to turn ugly and nothing is as much fun as it used to be. The daily trips to the community pool are no longer fun, they are boring. The video games that were so exciting last week are now lame. There isn't a single movie on Netflix that is worth watching unless it's R rated...and stick-in-the-mud-Mom refuses to allow any of those cool R rated flicks to be viewed by anyone in the house who is below age 17 (and that would be all 5 of the kids in question). Even the summer movies that were just released to the theaters don't relieve the ennui of our teens...not to mention that tickets and snacks for 5 cost a small fortune, so fun-sucking mom doesn't agree to movies at the mall very often anyway. Trips to the beach that were wildly anticipated last spring now garner complaints that the ocean smells like fish and cannot be tolerated. Trips to Roller Palace that were previously begged for now only hold interest for an hour before the cherubs are bored and want to be chauffeured home again. Bickering between siblings is constant, whining and tattling fills the air like the drone of summer insects, and the words
"I'm bored...there's nothing to do!"
are uttered at least 100 times per day per child. Parental suggestions to go bike riding, skateboarding, scootering, etc. to relieve said boredom are met with anguished cries of
"It's too hot!!!!"
or
"(Insert name of sibling) broke my bike/skateboard/scooter and now I can't ride it!!!"
Parental suggestions to get busy on that assigned summer reading have been made and were met with more whining and wailing. Ah, summer...I'm ready to bid you goodbye, to trade in your sweet charms for the wonders of autumn...which include the beautiful sight of a shiny yellow school bus arriving at our door.
Our charter school starts in just 2 weeks...and not a moment too soon. Autumn in New England? My new favorite season.
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4 comments:
HA! Love it. Preachin' to the choir, babe.....
NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
Dee...my calendar shows me that school starts in 3 weeks! The deal is, to cherish each day...because once
the "rat race" starts, the stress starts too! That's easy
for someone to say who isn't going through what is
happening in your home...I've been there done that! I'd like to let you in on a secret though...
I miss those days and wish with all my heart that my "little girl"...wasn't all grown up and living in
Cincinnati.
My advice...drink more of those "frozen wonders" :) :)
Hi Elisa--Yep, the regular school district starts in 3 weeks...but my kids go to the charter school which has a longer calendar year. They start on August 24, 2 weeks from today....but in the interim, I think the advice about frozen wonders is excellent!
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