So often we can focus all our energy and plan on ensuring we keep our kids happy during the summer, that our own desires for summer activities get put on hold.
We want our kids to enjoy their time off, while also finding a balance between relaxing and staying mentally engaged, that we often feel we have to choose between making sure our kids have the summer they want instead of having the summer WE want. However, that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case.
It is possible to have both summers—the one our kids want and the one we want for ourselves.
Summer Getaways
It goes without saying that one summer goal for most parents is to spend some quality time with the family. Between work and school, it can often feel that the only time we get to see our kids as parents is for the brief, 15 minutes when everyone’s shoveling food into their faces.
The summer offers a great opportunity to really spend some time together, and a great way to do that is a summer trip—whether it’s visiting family in another part of the country, hitting one of the many theme parks across the country, or getting back to nature by spending time in one of the nation’s beautiful national parks, there are plenty of great destinations that will allow your family to bond along the way, and spend some quality time together and create memories that will last for years to come.
Summer Camps Aren’t Just for Kids
Perhaps your kids are starting to develop a particular interest or hobby; maybe they’re becoming interested in a field that could lead to a job down the road. Whatever the case, there are so many different summer camps that your kids can enjoy—from niche interests to more mainstream ones, it seems nearly every activity and hobby you can think of has some sort of camp that your kids can enjoy.
But summer camp doesn’t have to be just for them. The great thing about your kids spending a week or two at camp is it frees up some time for you to enjoy the summer activities you’ve been hoping to get to do as well—especially the ones that are just for adults.
Set a Schedule
The summer is short; for many of us, it often feels like it’s over before we truly got to experience it. If you don’t want to find yourself realizing summer is ending and you didn’t get a chance to do what you wanted to do, it’s important to set a schedule.
It can be easy for us to put off the activities we want to do in the summer, but that often results in us missing out on the chance to have those experiences entirely.
To avoid this, planning ahead is key—if you want to spend some time on a road trip, pencil it in right away; do you plan on hitting up a water park? Check the weather for the hotter days and pick one for a trip; whatever you want to do, if you plan it in advance, you’ll be more likely to actually see it through, rather than realizing you wasted your summer and didn’t get to do the things you really wanted to do.
