Summers start with the best intentions. We fantasize about long, peaceful days at the beach building sand castles with our toddlers or playing tennis with our teens. Casting off a busy school year, we're excited to finally relax the rules. Yes to the ice cream cones with insanely sugary toppings just before bedtime (heck, what bedtime?). Yes to the car keys (so what if it's three late nights in a row?). Breakfast brownies? Why not? Another TV show? Sure, go ahead. It's summer vacation, right?
Then, in Week Three, reality sets in: the bedtime routine now takes twice as long, everything has become a negotiation, and those idyllic days at the beach -- well, they've become the setting of the sunscreen wars. How did these relaxing summer days get so... stressful?
Whether your kids are having a throwback 1970s summer, a Free-Range or a Hovering Helicopter summer, beware of the ever-tempting "summer slide." The summer slide is the parenting equivalent of the "summer brain drain," where what we know as parents slides, well, down the drain. In an effort to keep our summer fantasy alive, we sometimes bend our rules just a little too much and then suddenly... SNAP.
Before things get totally out of control, let's get back to the basics, kindergarten-style -- and start digging our way out of this sand pit to avoid getting buried alive. It's worth reminding ourselves that summer is a break from routine, after all, not a break from parenting.
Here are 11 things you can do now to reclaim your relaxing summer:
1. Stop with all the choices.Teachers offer "choice" in small doses. They don't offer a range of snacks and they don't ask kids if they'd rather go to art class or gym class. Giving too many choices gives up too much control, and teachers know to do that sparingly.
2. Go ahead, disappoint.You-Get-What-You-Get-And-You-Don't-Get-Upset. Don't be afraid to disappoint. Resilience, learning how to bounce back, is a skill that can be taught, but not if we're smoothing over every conflict just to avoid a momentary tantrum or mommy guilt. We need to learn to live with the short-term discomfort and concentrate on the long-term gain.
3. Sloooow down.Seeds grow slowly; chicks hatch when they are ready; important things take time. Children and teens don't understand time -- they want what they want when they want it. We too often react by jumping on their timeline. When we contort ourselves to suit their whims, we not only upend our lives, we give away the opportunity to teach them about patience.
4. Stop asking permission, OK?"Mommy just has to run this quick errand, OK?" Teachers don't ask permission. Ending declarative sentences with question marks is giving power to a little person who doesn't actually want it. What children want is the security of limits and parents who know when to say no, even in the summer.
5. Let them clean up.Overscheduled children don't have time to clean their rooms or do their chores. Teens with summer jobs and SAT prep are just too busy to pick up their clothes off the floor. In school, if you haven't cleaned up your mess, then you cannot move on to your next activity. By failing to insist upon this at home, we let our kids control the disorder in our houses and in our lives.
6. Revisit Oz.The single most exciting thing that happens in kindergarten is that children take their first steps on the way to reading -- starting on a yellow brick road that leads to a vast magical world they can now visit on their own. And then we and our kids get busy and forget about the Emerald City because life is too rushed and there is already too much reading assigned at school. Take back Oz; remember how lucky our kids felt when they first decoded the printed page.
7. Circle time.It's important to ask our kids about their day, every day. Create your own version of "circle time" at home. Tell the kids about your day, your challenges and triumphs, and ask them about theirs. This becomes even more important with teens, who will know that sharing what they are up to with their parents is just part of the deal.
8. Teachers, not friends or fairy godmothers.When we try to be our child's friend, we not only cede authority, we actually cheat them out of a more important relationship. We are there to teach and love and guide, not to grant their every wish.
9. Rest time.Teachers know the importance of rest. Regular and adequate sleep is essential for kids at every age. Even tweens and teens should have a regular bedtime right up through high school. The end of summer should not be like a bad bout of jet lag, with no one able to get to sleep at night or up in the morning.
10. Mind their manners.Manners never stop mattering. As parents, we all too often rush, cut corners, forget to be as polite as we could and let our kids get away with the glib manners of the 21st century. Nothing has changed; manners are still magical and it is within our power to teach them.
11. Summer doesn't equal spoiling.At every age, kids think getting everything they want will make them happy, and it will be a very long time before they learn this isn't true. We know the truth, and if we don't teach this lesson early and often, the unbridled greed inspired by media can soon overwhelm our family's true values. Days at the beach are a treat. A family vacation is something special. Summer doesn't have to equal spoiling.
Summer is just a different season, not a different childhood. It can be so easy to confuse the two.
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