How to Survive Summer without Losing your S*%t.

Summer break sounds magical in April, even May, until you realize all of your local Summer Camps were filled by the third week of March. In Mid-June, three days into Summer Vacation, when your kid has already told you they’re bored seventeen times before 10am, the rose-colored glasses fall off and shatter on the floor.

I’ve done this enough times now that I have an actual system. Not a Pinterest-perfect system with color-coded activity jars and a chore chart that requires a laminator. A real system. For real people.

The “Yes List” and the “Figure It Out” Rule

At the start of summer, we make a Yes List — ten things we actually want to do together. It goes on the fridge. When someone says “I’m bored,” I point to the list. If they don’t want anything on the list, they get handed a chore. The boredom usually resolves itself quickly after that.

Protect Your Mornings

Whatever you do, do not let summer mornings become a free-for-all. Keep a loose version of the school morning routine — wake up around the same time, get dressed, eat breakfast. It sounds like overkill but it prevents the 2pm zombie spiral where everyone is in pajamas and no one has eaten a real meal.

Give Them a Creative Outlet (That Isn’t Screens)

I know, I know. But hear me out. When kids have something physical to do — a journal, a sketchbook, 8 billion Perler beads that will inevitably find their way to the floor… paper airplanes that will inevitably find their way to the floor….a craft project — they actually like. The key is making it feel not like work… A cool journal they picked out themselves will get used. A guitar with good strings, freshly tuned will get used as well…..

Lower the Bar on Everything Else

Summer is not the time for peak parenting. Cereal for lunch isn’t a deal breaker. I still need to do work even if the kids are home. Bedtime slides. Sunscreen doesn’t get reapplied as fast as it should and someone gets a little pink and it’s fine. Give yourself and your kids permission to just exist for a few months without optimizing everything.

You’ll all survive. Probably even enjoy it.