Lazy....Hmmmm....Last week of May/First Week June: Piano competitions (much preparation required), swim, much overtime at work, Piano Recital, dance dress rehearsal, swim.
Second week of June: School Picnic, swim, more overtime, school council meeting (and hours of prep writing up the previous two months minutes), tore down the old swingset.
Third week of June: Another dance dress rehearsal, swim, Dance recital, trying to fit in time with friends (was able to fit that in after the Dance recital, a smidgen of relaxation in a hectic week), Last week of school stuff (had to drag the kids to school the last two days), summer swim (in which we added three of the kids friends to tag along with to swim class at the "Y"), new Piano schedule, both kids taking lessons now, put up a new swingset (that can hold both kids).
Fourth week of June: Summer Piano, Summer Dance, Summer Swim, #2's birthday party (8 kids 3 adult's) at "Herbie, Fully Loaded" (surprisingly good), Two graduation parties, and another birthday party, oh...and altar serving. We stayed in the house all day on Sunday...there can be such as thing as too much summer "fun".
This Week: Volleyball camp, Summer Piano, Summer Swim, Summer Dance, school council meeting, more altar serving...all leading into the fourth of July festivities that will mostly done this weekend. Most of the summer reads this way...so I won't go on with our schedule.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not really "complaining" complaining...The Mrs. and I agree that it's good to keep the kids busy and interested, but it does get a tad overwhelming at times.
Times have changed: When I think back to when I was 9 or 10...I'd be at the playground with some friends on a June day; Dad would drive by the playground and yell "Get your butt home for dinner!" ....and then keep on driving. Nary a parent these days would dare let their kid at a playground unsupervised. Heck, even with our 12 year old, she can only go with a friend whose parents we know, and she has to take a FRS radio...and even then, she can't be in the park after 6:00pm....the days she is allowed to go, aren't very often (maybe once a week). I don't think the world is a worse place than when we were kids, I think that it's just better reported. The same dangers are out there, but we are much more aware of them as parents. How can you not be with something like the Amber Alert System? While I live in one of the lowest crime police beats in "The City", we still get a few perverts flashing kids and the occasional "black sedan" with candy and/or a puppy that gets reported (though to the neighborhood's credit, these jerks are almost always caught by tipsters...and in a few cases; parents who grabbed and held them until the cops arrived). No community is truly "safe"...though I have to say...some are safer than others. But I don't think any parent should be leaving their kids out all day unsupervised to the extent that I was as a kid. The lines of communication must be kept open, and that includes knowing who your kids are with, and what they are doing and that should include some form of parental supervision.
Another big difference for my kids is that there is only two of them. When I was a kid, there were usually 5 of 6 other siblings to do stuff with if friends were not available. My kids have an advantage that there are a lot of kids on our block to play with (and most of the parents are pretty good about watching them with the same vigilance we do).
While we do here our share if "I'm Bored" 's, for the most part, our kids always feel they have fun summers. It may not be a "Lazy" summer, but we hope they look back on them with fondness when they are adults.
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