Welcome Summer!

“Hey, good to see you! We should meetup for coffee or maybe a glass of wine! Cant’s believe the kids will be out of school in just a few days… what’s you plan for the summer?” I look at the person asking, I laugh and then I answer: - We don’t really have a plan. “Oh, really… but I thought you were working?” – Umm, yes. I am working. I guess my plan is to work with my children in tow. We did it last summer and it went great. I ended up paying them for their time of hanging out at inspections, touring homes, sitting at the office at meetings and being quiet, like salary not bribery. I felt it was fair to compensate them for spending their summer with me at work aka working.

I love summer. I love the lazy mornings when I don’t have to rush three children out of the door trying to remember crazy hair days, stuffy days, pajama days, popcorn Fridays… and the list goes on. I love the 73 days of no school and not having to pack three lunches every morning. I love the beaches, the swim lessons and impromptu backyard parties. I love that there is no rain, I love the rumbling sound of the A/C and everything else that goes with summer.

But as much as I love the summer, I must admit it is a hassle for a working parent. Last year was easier as hubs was still in his old job and way more flexible than right now. At times we traded half way through the day or he worked from home or, well, we just figured it out. But now he is in Seattle and I’m all over the place, and I’m also quite a bit busier than a year ago.

So, why have I not signed them up, lined them up with endless summer camps? That would have been a solution. Not a cheap one, but an easy one for sure. Or? Summer camps are fabulous, and the selection is pretty much endless. There are Lego camps, adventure camps, coding camps, music camps, drama camps, science camps, swim camps, climbing camps, cooking camps, art camps, bible camps, language camps, sports camps, book camps, camps, camps, camps… endless list of camps with different themes, isn’t that just fabulous?!! Yes, and no.

We tried camps for one summer. I think we did camps 7 weeks out of the 10. The other 3 weeks we split our days so that I started work at 6 AM at the hospital, and at 2 PM he dropped the kids off on his way to the office for the afternoon. In the mornings he was working from home and the kids were playing Xbox and watching TV. By the way, Xbox is the best babysitter the only thing it does not know how to do is conflict resolution when someone kills someone else’s Minecraft person by accident. In a way camps were better that the weeks at home. At least they were doing something else than sitting, no sorry, laying in front of the screen. But just imagine starting a new job every single Monday. Maybe you know the office, maybe you even know the management, but every Monday you get new peers and start building a new group dynamic. By Friday you kinda have it sorted out, but on Monday you have new peers once again and the game starts over.

It wasn’t a fun summer, and when school started in the fall, we were all relieved. I also promised my children that we would never repeat this exercise, that there had to be a better way than this. So, we are not doing a line up of summer camps. The boys are doing swim lessons, and Mia is going away for a sleepover horse camp for a week. Everything else we play by ear.

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It’s Thursday morning. Last day of school. In the kitchen I have 30 roses with home made little tags on them, wishing the recipient an amazing summer. I have cards for the retirees and gifts for the teachers and school therapists. Three more hours and they are out!