The worst time of year is staring us straight in the face. It’s the time of year every kid loves, and every parent hates. That’s right: summer.
Man, do you remember summer as a kid? I do. I loved it. All the time outside, the endless playing, riding my bike, swimming, late nights, making s’mores over a campfire… it was the best. Of course, here’s what you never realize as a kid: there’s someone there, making all that summertime magic happen. It was my mom, and my friends’ moms, and every mom out there on the planet. Oh, what we took for granted.
Today, as an adult? I hate summer. It’s not as bad, living here in gorgeous Pennsylvania compared to Florida, I will say that. (If you enjoy a climate akin to living a hot bowl of soup, then Florida is for you.) But still… it’s hot. And sweaty. The days are unbearably long, and it’s just all-around miserable. Then add in carting around a bunch of kids to the misery, and it’s even worse.
READ: Ice Cream Spots In and Around South Central PA
Yet somehow, every year, I look forward to summer. It’s like, the end of the school year is looming, and we’re all so tired of waking up at 6am and dealing with homework and field trips and UGH. It’s all just exhausting, and so we think hey, in a few weeks, we don’t have to get up early anymore! We can sleep in, and there won’t be homework, and we can just take it easy for a few months and do whatever we want!
My fellow moms, here is my message for you: don’t get suckered into this trap. You won’t get to sleep in; your kids will still be waking you up at an ungodly hour. And it’ll be a hundred times harder to get them to go to sleep at a normal time, because the sun is still beaming with all its might damn near midnight. So even though it’s 9pm, the kids are still bouncing around all over the place no matter how dark your blackout curtains are. And they’re there, full of crazy energy, ALL. DAY. LONG. There are no breaks. There’s no time off. It’s just nonstop craziness.
And all those fun activities you’re going to do? Sure, there’s fun stuff out there aplenty in PA, but then you’ve got to load everyone in and out of the car over and over again, and everyone is sweaty and gross within 10 seconds flat. And while the kids are happy as clams running around in 100 degree heat, blissfully unconcerned about things like heat stroke and hydration, we’re sitting there dying of heat, trying to time when we need to reapply sunscreen, nagging them to drink water instead of Kool-Aid, all while melting into a puddle of sweaty sadness. There’s no summertime magic for moms; we’re the ones making the magic for everyone else while secretly praying that pumpkin spice season is starting soon.
Summer isn’t fun. Summer is hot, sweaty, misery. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just skip the whole thing and go right to fall?
Do you like summertime, or do you hate it?
