The Summer Chaos.
Well, we’re a week into summer break here in Central Texas and is anyone else ready for school to be back like this week?! I know FOR SURE the teachers are not (and truthfully, neither am I because those early mornings were getting real rough!). For our family, camps of any kind weren’t accessible until this week and even with calling in the reinforcements of out of state grandparents, this past week has been a special kind of chaos. Every summer, I just forgot how tough this transition from school to summer is! Our daughter got off the final afternoon bus of the school year and immediately burst into tears because she legitimately thought she’d never see her friends again…even though one was definitely already planning on coming over to play just a mere 72 hours later. Our son’s big feelings came out as just one large ball of energy. So. Much. Energy. Within 1 hour of school being out for the summer, he was at a neighbor’s house playing with the crew of boys and one brave Mom working from her porch. Bless them all! Summer is it’s own special brand of chaos, let me tell you.
Managing Summer Schedules
Summer chaos prep for me started in late February and March because that’s when you have to sign up your elementary age kiddos if you want to have a shot at them going to camp. In fact, one camp is so hard to get into, I literally told my boss, “Respectfully, I cannot have meetings at this time on this day. I need 15 minutes to sign on at exactly 8:00am to sign my kids up for an all day camp that fills up within 120 actual seconds and I am not joking!” Thankfully, he was very understanding and we got in, woo! We now have a digital calendar for the Parents, a paper calendar for the children that hangs on the fridge, and we’re about to introduce the Daily Schedule. Let me tell you something, friends, the Daily Schedule is the real star of the summer show here!
The Daily Schedule - there’s enough flex in here to work for both camp and non-camp days. In our family, half day camps work best and still give the kids time to just be kids and enjoy some 1990s style summer memories. Because some of you will ask, here’s a loose idea of what our summer weekdays looks like:
7:00am - awake and out of rooms, waking up, enjoy some TV shows
8:00 - breakfast on your own and dressed for the day
8:30 - TV is off and you’re headed outside to play, either solo or with friends; check in at 10:00am and maybe transition to non-screen based activities
12:00 - lunch time!
1:00-3:00 - quiet activities in your own space or a nap
3:00 - More outside play
4:00/4:30 - TV/tech time because it is Texas and HOT
5:30ish - family time/dinner prep/outside play together
Is this perfect? Absolutely not. Does it work for us 80% of the time, yes. That’s the other thing that I fully embrace during the summer - the rule of 80/20. 80% of the time we are really sticking to this schedule and letting kids have a lot of innovation and imagination time. 20% of the time we are flexible and understanding that every kid has off days, just like adults. Both my husband and I are on the same page about limiting tech and using it strategically…such as me “assigning” our son a Google Slides project to teach the rest of the family all about Minecraft while also practicing his presentation skills…personally, I thought this was a brilliant spur of the moment idea by me. He was actually excited about that and looking forward to using his tech time for more than just watching Preston Playz!
How to Keep Kids Busy During Summer Break
Let me tell you, I have no secret sauce answers for this one. I do know that a few years ago I read a parenting article about when we hover less, kids get the opportunity to innovate more. We’ve really, really tried to embrace that mindset, especially me. I think this is a distinct difference between Moms and Dads as my husband has no problem with not hovering, but this was definitely a behavior I had to unlearn! Jonathan Haidt writes a lot about giving kids appropriate real-life risks in his book “The Anxious Generation”. By the way, if you’re any type of adult with kids under 18 in your life, I cannot recommend enough that you read this book! It is so, so good. Anywho, hover less and kids will innovate more. This is a work in progress for me, but especially during the summer and because I work full time all year round, this is a practice that has given me some sanity back. Our kids know that they have full access to the wide range of indoor/outdoor games, art supplies, bikes, scooters, etc and can play with them and share them with friends. We’ve also worked really hard and are still working on the picking up part, but it’s coming along!
Chores are also another way that we keep kids busy during the summer. This is a year round thing, but especially during the summer. Each kid has a list of chores that get done daily/weekly and these are their “part of the family jobs”. We then have an ongoing list of extra jobs that we will hire them for and pay them some dollar bucks for. This includes things like spraying off the front porch and back patio, sweeping out the garage, and deep cleaning the baseboards. Our oldest also has a little business dog sitting and dog walking for families in our neighborhood. Add on the sport that they’re each in over the summer plus camps and that keeps them busy enough for us!
Surviving the Summer Chaos
I can’t write about the summer chaos without also mentioning a couple of mindset shifts that help me as The Mom and Family Organizer with managing the chaos. Number One is of course coffee. Listen. While I may be able to sleep in an extra 30 minutes, I give myself so much grace during the summer for enjoying an extra cup of coffee most days. In case you don’t know, two kids in Elementary World Land is a LOT. Each summer I am more and more convinced that teachers should be paid so much more. (I will spare you the picture of the literal boogers I found wiped on a wall…why? There’s a tissue box LITERALLY beside your bed!) So, yes, coffee is key.
Finding time to just be myself with no one asking questions or needing a single thing from me. No questions. Sometimes this looks like me getting up early and walking on my own before the day starts. Sometimes this is my evening Porch Swing Time. It doesn’t really matter when, I just know that I’m a better mom and wife when I’m able to get those precious minutes to myself.
Lastly, I lean hard into grace. Grace for myself, my kids, my neighbors, my husband, and friends. The whole dang crew. I choose to believe that everyone is doing their best (except for the booger on the walls choices). I remind myself at the end of the day that today I did my best and I’m allowed to make mistakes. Tomorrow is a new day. I try to protect my work boundaries and unless there’s an emergency, not work more than I should. I try to laugh more than I fuss at my kids. And August will be here before we know it!
Cheers to the summer chaos!