Oh, the summer camp struggle. I have such mixed feelings about it. Last summer, in my idealistic world, I thought that I wouldn’t sign up for any camps and my girls would play all day, swim, and really enjoy the summer. I mean it sounds like a wonderful life, right? I pictured us relaxing, enjoying each other’s company and not having to get up early like we do during the school year. I hate getting out of bed before 7am. My children don’t need to be entertained every minute of every day…. do they?!
Week one of last summer went something like this:
Wake up at 6am.
We’re hungry
Feed them.
Can we swim?
Finish swimming.
Can we go to the park?
Finish at the park.
We’re hungry.
Feed them again.
Can we have a friend over?
Me:
NO!!! We have eaten, swam, gone to the park, eaten 5 more times! No more!
Them:
Can we call our friend?
Me, sadly:
Ugh… sure.” In my head: only if you stop talking to me. Also, in my head : shouldn’t I be enjoying this time with my children!?
Finish the call with the friend.
Can we go to lunch?
BTW, this all took place before 10am! It was just too much. Arguably the worst part was that our house was NEVER clean. When they would play nicely, they would make a mess in every room in our house. After checking a few emails I would look up from my computer and the whole house was a disaster… as in, it takes 3 hours to get them to clean up that type of disaster.
Being mostly type A it drives me nuts that they play with toys from different bins. Wouldn’t it just be so much neater if they pulled out one bin, played with it, and then put it away??? Yes, clearly I’m dreaming, because that is not the way my children play … not even close.
So … as you can imagine, this summer rolls around and I’m tackling things a bit differently!
I have a plan for every week of the summer that we are in town … including summer camps! I then proceeded to send the list of our plans to their friends’ parents, because summer camp is always more fun with friends! I don’t even know that my kids want to go to summer camp, but really, I need more structure and sanity this summer. I need some time to work, hit the gym, and maybe buy some groceries. Ha, who am I kidding? Let’s not get too crazy.
While I have zero idea if this summer camp plan of attack will be successful, I cannot live in squalor while my kids play the day away with never-ending requests of me…everyday, ALL SUMMER. It’s just too much.
Wish us luck.
Do you send your kiddos to summer camp?
