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Escape The Pace® by Lisa Rickwood, BFA, CTACC Secrets to summer sanity with children “Being a child at home alone in the summer is a high-risk occupation. If you call your mother at work 13 times an hour, she can hurt you.” — Erma Bombeck You feel tension build in your body as the year reaches the month of June. You’re just counting the days, hours and minutes until the “schedule” eases up and you can have a bit of a life. By June, many busy parents are all too happy to say “goodbye” to school and “hello” to summer. However, it doesn’t take long before true panic happens. What the heck are we going to do with our children for two whole months? Depending on your lifestyle, this can be a small or large challenge. If you work full time and only receive one or two weeks of summer holidays, you may have to juggle summer programs and care for younger children. If you work at home, you may need to keep your children occupied while you run your home-based company. Finally, if your children are teenagers, you may juggle chauffeur duties as you drive them to jobs, social events and other activities. You may also get stressed over the thought of leaving your teenagers at home all day while you work; thoughts of spying on them, phoning them, and texting them may occupy your mind. Yes, summer can mean freedom but it can also mean ‘boredom’ for your children. By August, many children miss their friends, get tired of lack of structure and if they’re teenagers, you really hear the sentence, “I’m bored – this sucks,” or the current favorite term of my teen – “Whatever!” If you want to avoid childhood meltdowns due to boredom, and don’t want your kids to play video games 24/7, you need a plan – a fun, creative, realistic vision of how you want your summer to look. Once you master this planning phase, you can use it during other parts of the year. Creating structured and unstructured games and activities help children assimilate from the schedule of school to summer. When you go from a lot of structure to very little, problems arise. When my children were small, they attended summer day camps and the camp leaders handed out monthly calendars that had activities planned for every day. This was great for both the parents and children as everyone knew what was coming and could plan to bring bathing suits, special food and supplies. When my children got older, they didn’t attend summer camps because I hired a sitter and took some time off. I still created a calendar for July and August and asked my kids what they wanted to do. Then, I plugged in holidays, activities and free time. Every day they knew what was happening; sometimes we made changes but the calendar acted as a starting point. One of my family’s rituals is to have the "Start of the Summer Scavenger Hunt." I go out and buy summer things – beach balls, Frisbees, sidewalk chalk, tennis balls, croquet balls, etc. Then, I draw a map and give each of my sons a copy. They go outside and search for these items. This is how we celebrate the start of summer. It doesn’t matter that they’re older now – I just choose items to reflect their older ages. They love this – this is their start to summer. So…begin your summer with a ritual. Decide whether you’re going to take your kids away on a trip as soon as school ends. Or, maybe you’ll let them relax at home for a few days before you schedule a few activities into their upcoming calendars. Figure out how to start summer, how to have free time, play time, family time, friend time, activity time. Get clear about how you want your summer to look. If you don’t, the days will fly by and you won’t even remember your summer. What are some activities you can plug into your personal calendar? If you’re not sure, read these ideas to get inspired. You can also ask other parents, visit the library, check your local Parks and Recreation guides and more. There are hundreds of ideas but here a few good ones starting with: bean bag toss, scavenger hunt, Duck, Duck, Goose, Simon Says, charades, freeze tag, balloon bust relay, Hide and Go Seek, chalk drawing, basketball. If your children are teenagers and none of these activities interest them, the YMCA/YWCA offers low cost, supervised programs that vary from sports-related day programs to arts and crafts or leadership classes. The benefits of being involved this way is that teenagers are often given complete access to the facility while attending the camp. Colleges and universities often offer summer programs that are as varied as classes offered on campus. Your teen can learn everything from cooking to computer technology, video production and dance. When camp or sports programs don’t interest your teenager, working is often a valid option. Teenagers want money and freedom and this is often a time when they get their first real job. If they don’t get a job, they can volunteer a few hours a week at a hospital, animal shelter or other place. They gain valuable experience for their resume and for employment in the future. When all else fails and you’re the proud parent of teenagers, give them three Red Bulls in a row (just kidding), send them over to an annoying relative and enjoy the freedom of being childless for a few hours or days. Although after three Red Bulls, you’ll probably be getting those kids sent back home immediately! Summer should be a time of fun, activities, bonding and the freedom from a heavily packed schedule. There should be time to rest and relax, time for family and friends and time for fun-packed activities. With a little planning, this will be the best summer you’ve ever had!
Lisa Rickwood, BFA, CTACC, is an accomplished visual artist, mother, retailer, coach and author of Escape The Pace: 100 Fun and Easy Ways to Slow Down and Enjoy Your Life, and co-author of Power & Soul: 42 Entrepreneurs Share their Secrets for Creating the Business and Life of Their Dreams. If you're feeling overwhelmed, drowning in too many projects or suffering from techno-stress, Lisa can help. For more information on how you can Master Stress for More Success visit: www.EscapeThePace.com and get Lisa's special report, 5 Critical Actions that Hurt Your Business and Life...and How to Avoid Them.
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