Once Upon a Summertime …
Posted on August 27, 2009 by FoBaM-Jamie
Is it really almost September?!? I feel like only days ago I was buying new bottles of sunscreen and bug spray, and suddenly I have to start thinking about school supplies. What happened?
When I was a kid, summer seemed to stretch before me like a whole, new lifetime. The months between spring and fall passed slowly and were full of long afternoons spent doing almost nothing. Looking back, it’s hard not to wax nostalgic about the days I spent climbing trees, building forts, making friendship bracelets, walking to town for ice cream, embarking on imaginary adventures with my dog, and reading astounding numbers of books which I eagerly borrowed from the public library each week.
My daughter’s summers are so different from those of my childhood. Where I had a wealth of down time, her days are scheduled to nearly full capacity with summer camp, outings, and dance classes. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and is something of a necessity based on my work schedule. Although I harbor little guilt about how she spends her summers, I do have an occasional yearning to see my daughter enjoying the languorous days I knew when I was her age. Those longings run especially deep when we have quality time together, because I know that living without a schedule would stretch the summer for both of us.
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this summer was fun with the kids.
Aside from our Vacation to St Louis, my son had a pretty boring summer. I hope next summer he can get in more playdates and activities. This summer just went by too fast and was hard to schedule in his activities with mine. Plus I have a 22 month old that kept me pretty preoccupied. Hopefully in a year I can plan some activities and outings for him and his little brother!xc` vfdsa
LIFE IS GOOD. …… If you want it to be.
My son had a wonderful summer, and I’m sure he’s looking forward to next year.
It’s hard financially, as a stay-at-home mom and a one income household, to pay for the kids to go to any camps. Those are expensive. Everything from football camp to Lego camp. There is always the beach and the park, but after three months you get really bored and don’t even want to go anymore. My son had literal tears of boredom. Hoping for more next year!
My granddaughter (who lives with me) had an uneventful but fun summer, riding bikes, going to the local swimming pool, playing with her friends, setting up a lemonade stand under the tree in our front yard. Really, a throwback to my own childhood, long lazy days with no worries. A blessing in today’s frenetic world! The only thing we missed out on was a trip to the beach, which was disappointing.
This summer was a little bit crazy. We totally drove almost three thousand miles. But we did have a fun trip
i usually have my son in camp could not afford it sdince i had no support from grandma thios year so my son was forced to be bored at home all summer. I am on disability and since i dont work the only help camps give is like a week because you have to be working or they discount the rates which I feel hurts the children. They need to find a solution in this economy to help out the parents who are disabled or poor or both so there kids can go to camp that dont live in an inner city.
I don’t know where you are located in the country, but my son went to camp for underpriviledged children through the Tim Horton’s Foundation that sends children to awesome camps located in the US and Canada. I live outside of Detroit…my son was flown to Nova Scotia and spent 10 days there..an unforgettable experience for him! Check into it if you have a Tim Horton’s near you. ( it didn’t cost me a dime. If it did, I would never have been able to pay for him to go at the time.)
When I was a kid we went on vacation from week before July 4th until practically Labor Day. We were gone all the time trapsing across the country..which was good, but we had an itenerary remenscent of “The griswolds VACATION” movies…even though I had the pleasure of seeing everything from sea to shining sea, even the largest ball of twine, I love the days of staying closer to home and doing spur of the moment things during the summer. My son has seen both oceans and we do go on trips, but I think summer is more fun hanging with friends, swimming in the lake, bonfires in the back yard. We’ve got enough schedules at school and work, I don’t want them for my son during the summer too.
Alas, Summer, ye are too fleeting.
My son was born in June, so I got 8 weeks off to be at home with my family, like my Mom was when I was little. I was such a fan, I’ve debated getting a teaching degree so we can have more summers together. I grew up on a farm, so had lots of outside time. My kids are growing up in the city, so they got lots of playgroud trips, MN Zoo time and pool time at Nana & Papi’s. It was great!
During my summers as a kid, we often took one trip to see relatives, then spent the rest hanging out (my mom was a SAH mom). My husband’s family just hung out in the summer (5 kids and mom at home). I find we do the same with our two kids, ages 5 and 6. We take a short car trip to visit relatives in June, then spend the rest of the time playing outside, going to the park, going to the pool, having friends over, going to the library (love the summer reading games!), etc. I feel fortunate in that I work part time from home, so I am able to be with them. We like to discover things in our area: a farm, an ice cream stand, pick your own berries, a museum, etc. Sometimes we just lay around on the ground, looking at clouds, or get out the binoculars and look for birds. The big difference between their summer and mine growing up in the 70′s is that I ran “loose” in our neighborhood – riding my bike around, going to other kids houses, etc. – with my mother knowing that I was “nearby somewhere”. With my kids, and at their age, I feel I have to know where they are at all times. A sign of the times, I guess. I really enjoy an unstructured summer and feels it helps them decompress from the school year. I have to say, I worried they would be bored if I wasn’t providing new things weekly but they have loved it. They are amazingly good at making up games and imaginative play with each other, which helps!
The difference between now and “then” is that now, kids wait around for us to make plans for them, while we went out and found things to do. I got up in the morning and headed out the door. I found my friends and we did stuff, or we did nothing, but we didn’t wait for our moms to tells us what to do. I get so frustrated when my kids just sit around waiting for me to magically give them something to do when the whole world is right outside waiting for them.
When I was a kid I has fun just doing nothing in the summer. When I say nothing I mean no scheduled! Just swimming, catching fire flies, climbing trees, ect. A couple of times I did go to camp I didn’t like it! Too many rules and scedules! I schedule a couple of consistent activities, such as tball, for my kids. The rest of the time is spent chilling out with dad and me or the sitter when I’m at work.
When I was a kid, we were able to ride our bikes to the playground, to our friends’ houses, to the pool, etc. without much worry. That was how I spent my summertimes, along with a trip to see Grandma & Grandpa. This summer made me realize how much I miss having that for my kids. We live in an area where we can’t do that due to people driving down our street at 45 mph without a care in the world, and my children have been seriously threatened by one of our neighbor kids, so it’s not very fun for them to go outside and play without constant fear that they’re going to get bullied or having to listen to our neighbors constantly fighting and swearing at each other. What has happened to our neighborhoods and our children that they can’t enjoy summertime in their own yard anymore without having to listen to all the garbage that comes out of people’s mouths?!?
To make it fun, we did things in other places to get away from it all. We went to Grandma’s house, I drove them to the pool, we went to the library, etc. and I hope they’ve enjoyed spending time with me as much as I have with them.
My children had a great summer, as so did my husband & I. Last summer we never had the chance to take the kids camping due to work related issues. However, this summer camping was one of the first things we did. We took them for a whole week of camping. They had an awesome time. The best thing about summer holidays is the fact that we love doing fun things with the children (We have 3) and taking pictures. We always love looking back on the things which we do, and capturing how much the kids are growing. These days, it seems like time is just flying bye, and I want to make sure that I catch almost every moment of it with the kids. Summer is awesome! It brings out the best in everything & everyone! Enjoy!
I do child care at home so we stayed home alot, though did fun trips to the zoo. There is also a $1 theatre close by that we’d visit. Being a SAH (mostly) mom like most of my friends works becuase we all hang out together. My kids, plus the ones I watch, all have great imaginations so they come up with the craziest stuff and would RATHER be home than anywhere else!! We feel so blessed because both of our mother’s worked so my husband and I spent the summer in daycare or babysitting younger siblings, so me being able to be with kids is awesome!! As for all the camp comments, we did inexpensive day camps, through our church and cub scouts. We did splurge on our church’s family camp, but that was it.
I had a great summer with my Kids… Very laid back. we had some PJ. days and we loved every moment of it! There is just nothing I would change!
I think it was much more fun when I was a child. We wondered the neighborhood as a pack. We congregated at someone’s house, or in the local field and played all summer. In south Texas it was very hot, but it didn’t matter. We stayed out all day.
My boys don’t get to do that. It isn’t safe anymore to just turn them loose. Our local park, in sight of my house, is full of people selling drugs and bored teens trying to get into trouble. I think it is very sad for my boys today. I try to do things with them, but it’s not like being with a group of peers doing what you want.
who wants to run kids all around for 6 weeks , thats what we do all school year……summer is just time to be a kid! and let the kid come out n u…………..
It was a great summer for me! I had a chance to hang out with my grandson. TBall and soccer. Bible school and day camp. Swimming and library visits. It was busy and fun. Never did it with my own kids because of work. It was great!