School's out for summer! If you're
anything like me, those words fill you with one part 'Sa-weet!' and
three parts 'OMG! What am going to do with them for all that
time?' Well, I'm sure you've already come across your fair share of
lists of must-do summer activities, you've enrolled your kids in
swimming lessons, and concocted grand plans for day trips and week-long
holidays at the lake. You're mentally compiling a list of craft ideas
and outdoor activities for play-dates with friends and you've spent a small fortune on gadgets, water guns, and slip and slides, all to
ensure that neither their boundless energy nor a day of the precious
summer season is wasted. But, you're forgetting something... In fact, you're
forgetting the best thing about the season--something we just
don't get enough of the rest of year--an activity that is both
timeless and revolutionary at the same. And that is this...
Nothing.
Sweet nothing.
If you're anything like me, the thought
of doing or planning nothing makes you uneasy. It conjures up
visions of your household positively erupting in mess with bored kids
fighting and screaming while you pull your hair out until such a time
that you become adequately defeated enough to enlist the services of
Captain TV and Nanny Smartphone to rescue you from imminent disaster.
Now, I'm not guaranteeing that won't happen, but I will
guarantee that it wouldn't be the end of the world. I guess I'm just
suggesting that kids, like us, need a little more of, well,
nothing—time and space to be creative, relax, and to just let
things happen (or not happen).
Occasionally the shift that occurs from
one generation and the next is quite surprising to me, and this is
one of those times. Do you know what my mom planned for me
every summer? Nothing.
Do you remember what your Auntie Martha
used to do when you came over to play with your cousins? Well, if she
was like mine, she watched All My Children and brought out some
orange Kool-Aid around 3 o'clock. Your grandma? Mine made me pull
weeds and pick raspberries and paid us in lemon drops and rosebuds.
From memory, NO ONE in my neighborhood really planned anything for
their kids, and, do you know what? IT WAS THE BEST TIME OF THE
YEAR!
In my neighborhood, we used to get up
to all sorts of things...tree houses, swimming (no one drowned in my
memory), we played in the sprinklers, we let our imaginations run
wild, we camped in tents made out of nets and blankets, we collected
sticks and rocks and bugs and bottle caps, we got dirty, we ran in
the rain, we jumped, we climbed, we ran, we hid, we had so much fun
we forgot to hydrate or put on sunscreen. We even found other kids to play with and we
adventured in pastures and groves of trees, we kicked balls and
played 500 (does anyone else call it that?), we learned to catch and
shoot hoops without drills or instruction, and unless our parents
commandeered us into some house or yard work, WE JUST PLAYED, and
I'll say it again, it was the BEST!
When my mind runs away with thoughts
like these, of childhood summers that were easy and carefree, I worry
that I just might be doing a disservice to my kids with all of this
planning and structure. My guess is that there might be a hiccup or
two and maybe an adjustment period while we learn to slow down, but
my pledge this summer for my family is to do a little less of
something and a LOT more nothing! Join me if you dare!
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