On June 26th the summer break stretched out before us as nine nearly empty weeks of unending requirements to keep our kids entertained, engaged, and active. It felt like a massive hurdle to keep the occupied, and not at each other’s throats. Then the heat waves settled in and sucked much of our strength, and the desire to be outdoors, or out & about doing stuff, right out of our bodies. Now there are only two weeks left to go before they return to school and I think of the things we could have done, but didn’t. We still got to go do and bunch of stuff, they were not hard done by, but the heat & humidity was so oppressive we just couldn’t justify even more activities. Folks were fainting around us at Wonderland. We opted to stay indoors out of the heat, under the cool protection of the AC for much of the summer. Yes we could have ventured to bigger beaches, or the Zoo, or amusement parks or what not, but the sun burns, heat exhaustion, and general unpleasantness of such things wasn’t worth it to us.
I feel bad we didn’t do more, but I’m also glad we didn’t cause any permanent damage exposing ourselves to the harsh elements this summer. If September doesn’t devolve into a rain soaked mess we still have time to go day trip places on the weekends. Though once the kids programming kicks in there won’t be much free time in the evenings to worry about going anywhere extra. We have a jam packed schedule between both kids.
I guess nine weeks felt so open to possibilities, but the reality of working, and the intense heat & dryness out a damper on our desire to do more with the kids. I used my skateboard once. Have not used my bike, nor my roller blades — again! This whole summer. Heading north a bunch mitigates those as options because of the unlit dirt roads. The girls will just have to be satisfied by doing cottage life style things, and not shopping malls, the zoo, far flung beaches, or inner city located destination spots like iFly or Air Riders, or mini putt etc… boat rides, tubing, paddle boards, and wake boarding are the substitutes here. Not a bad swap I think. More than I did each summer.
The expectations for the summer break’s potential always start really high, so I guess we should probably work on managing those expectations. Figuring out what is a reasonable request, and what is too much to hope for. That would likely eliminate much of the distress the kids feel. It can be a challenge to organize play dates with how varied everybody’s schedules are, so I know the kids have a common complaint of feeling a little isolated, or removed from their friend group all summer long. We try to attend town festivities so that we can meet up if only for an hour or two. We did get some one on one time with a few friends here & there. For the most part we prioritize family over friends. Not that we try to shut friends out, but making time for family is important to us. It’s times like this where it would be great if my own family didn’t live across the country requiring multiple flights to get to them. But I digress.
Here’s hoping you get the most out of your last two weeks without suffering any harm because of it! Ciao Bella!
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