Imagine how kids feel when that last bell rings to herald the start of summer vacation. Words like “elation,” “relief,” and “wild celebration” come to mind. Tests and studying are finished, projects are suspended for the duration, and homework is right out. What kid could resist the glee inspired by the end of the school year?
But what about their parents?
Summer vacation presents parents with a unique set of challenges for every stage of their child’s development:
• Babies and toddlers: For the 2 and under population, summer vacation flows naturally from their normal daily rhythms. These kids are always on summer vacation, although they’re too young to appreciate that fact. Their parents don’t suffer the stresses that parents of older kids do when Memorial Day rolls around. These parents can enjoy the benefits of summertime, when warmer weather leads to less clothing, which frees up an extra 10 minutes each time the child needs to be dressed or undressed. Since infants require at least a dozen outfit changes per day, a parent can gain a full two hours of usable time each summer day. Infants and toddlers gain extra time in the summer as well, since they can’t be persuaded to go to bed at bedtime because it’s not dark outside yet. All this extra time makes summer seem like an endless, everlasting season.
• Elementary-school-age children: These kids pose the trickiest dilemmas for their summer-stressing parents. They are too young to be left at home with a microwave meal and the admonition, “Don’t be on the computer all day long.” They need structure, supervision, and creative nurturing — all designed to fend off the deadly phrase, “I’m bored.”
I used to take note of the first summer day that I heard that dreaded phrase. If it was pronounced before the first week of vacation was out, I knew we were in for a long summer indeed. Of course, a little boredom is good for a kid. It builds character, in the same way that having to ride your bike to school in the rain, eating broccoli even when you don’t like it, and working on a group project with people who don’t share your work ethic builds character. At least that’s what my parents always told me.
Luckily for parents of elementary school kids, summer is full to bursting with camps. There are camps of all descriptions, from horse camp to robotics camp to plain old church camp. If you don’t know what to do with your kids for the summer, send them off to camp.
• Teenagers: These are the kids who are old enough to be left at home with a microwave meal and that hopeful parental admonition to not fry their brains with too much screen use. Summer jobs are helpful for this demographic, if for no other reason than to get them out of bed in the morning. What parents need to realize about teenagers on summer vacation is the fact that if they no longer have to get up at the crack of dawn, they won’t. End of story. Parents just need to resign themselves to putting out the trash and feeding the cat themselves, because the teenagers will be fast asleep for most of the morning. They have a full two semesters of sleep to catch up on.
• College-age kids: While technically adults, these kids still experience summer vacation in much the same way as they did in their younger days, except for the fact that summer lasts longer for college kids than it does for any other age group. I don’t know why.
College kids are more likely to experience the “hi, bye” summer than any other age group. They come home for a week, bringing a whiff of academia blowing through the household, and then they’re off again for a summer adventure as a traveling camp counselor or a research assistant on campus. They have to buy their own microwave meals, and if they stay up too late on their screens they have to wake themselves up in the morning with no nudge from a helpful parent.
Regardless of the age or stage of the kid, one thing is universal. Summer vacation is a long-awaited pleasure, meant to be fully enjoyed. Come on, parents, get with the program.
• Peggy McKee Barnhill is a wife, mother and author who writes cozy mysteries under the pen name “Greta McKennan.” Her latest book, Historically Dead, is available at Hearthside Books. She likes to look at the bright side of life.
