Summer Break

Sometimes it is just hard to be a grown up. There is something about summer that makes me yearn for the simpler days of my childhood. I drove nine hours last week to visit my parents and while I was driving I couldn’t help but be slightly envious of my kids sitting in the back of the car, reading and playing with toys. That used to be me. Since I am the youngest, all our years of road tripping across the country meant all my sisters would take turns driving but I was never old enough. I got to sit in the back and read, listen to my walkman, watch out the window, sleep or do whatever I wanted for 36 hours. That sure beats sitting in traffic, getting cut off by a red BMW, being rerouted onto sketchy streets because of traffic and trying to find a Wendys before your kids get too hangry.

My kids always wonder why dad doesn’t have a summer break. Every day for the first week of vacation they ask where is dad and they’re so confused when I explain how he still has to go to work. Wouldn’t it be so fun if we could all take a short break from adulting? I kind of get away with it a little bit; my meal plans get much simpler and easier and more flexible, I do much less cleaning, I try to grocery shop as infrequently as possible and really only do laundry when we’ve run out of clean beach towels. I probably should be making my kids do some math problems or help more with chores or practice the piano more but it is just so hard for me to want to be responsible during the summer and it is difficult for me to make them be so.

I remember the first time I had to work full-time during the summer and it is brutal. I was working at a promotion fulfillment office (super lame college job) and couldn’t believe we didn’t get July 24th off, which is a holiday in Utah where I was living. My husband had it off from school and I was so annoyed that I wouldn’t be home to play with him. I ended up working it out to take the day off but it was such a hassle and my boss made such a big deal of it. That was when I realized that I was not meant to be someone else’s employee because I am still just a large child who wants to play all summer.

So I now have the perfect job of keeping four little people alive and well and helping them to love summer and make memories. I love keeping us as unscheduled as possible so that we can fill up our time with swimming, friends, vacationing, exploring, adventures and down time.  We don’t set an alarm to get up in the morning and we try not to ever be in a rush. This is as close to a break from adulting as I think possible and I’ll gladly take it.