It was 11:00 on the first day of summer break when I heard the words, “I’m bored.”

Eleven o’clock in the morning! On the very first day of summer! My kids had only been awake for a handful of hours when they managed to utter those dreaded words. The words that cause mothers everywhere to lose their ever-loving minds.

Of course I responded with the tried and true momism: “If you tell me you are bored, I will find something for you to do.” (This phrase must be uttered in a voice that sends chills down your children’s spines. It works best when accompanied by laser beam eyeballs, one finger pointing at a mound of dirty dishes and the other at the overflowing laundry basket.)

I love summertime. I really do. I love sleeping in and going to the lake and watching movies in our pajamas at noon. I love not having the pressure of homework weighing down our evenings. I love the ability to spend loooooooong hours with my children.

But sometimes I feel like I might lose my mind.

Having six children home all day long means I can never find a quiet minute alone to write, or answer emails, or pee. Summer break means instead of the regular meal schedule….

 

We have the bottomless pit meal schedule….

The summer meal schedule is designed to keep me in the kitchen all the live long day. It also guarantees there is never a clean dish in the house. Speaking of dishes, I only have six children so why at the end of every day are there five thousand three hundred seventeen dirty cups lining the countertops?

To help ensure my survival and the survival of our species, I have put together a list of my Top 5 Summer Survival Tips. We have made it this far, fellow parenting heroes. We are more than halfway through summer break. Let’s finish strong.

Survival Tip #1 – Give Them A Schedule

Summertime is about freedom and flexibility, but we can still provide some kind of routine. Children thrive on structure. It doesn’t have to be military-esque. We need just enough schedule to keep our sanity. Even though it is summer, I still enforce a loose bedtime. Around here the summer bedtime is 10:30ish. Sometimes we stay up late to finish a movie. Sometimes we have sleepovers and stay up all night. My oldest knows he is the last one to go to bed so his bedtime is usually closer to 11:30. Despite the variations, everyone understands that around 10:30 on most nights I will be sending them off to brush their teeth and wash their face. Having a loose bedtime cuts down on the daily arguments about how late they should be allowed to stay up.

I also have a meal schedule. I hate rummaging through bare pantries and empty vegetable drawers at five o’clock, trying to figure out what to feed my starving children. It helps me to have a dinner menu planned out for the week. I make my menu every Sunday and grocery shop every Monday. Having a dinner schedule also provides security for my children. Coming from a history of hunger and malnourishment, they tend to worry about their next meal. I hang the menu in a prominent place to provide reassurance that I will in fact feed them, as I have fed them every night for as long as they have known me. This also helps to eliminate the oft-repeated and delirium-producing question, “What’s for dinner?”

Survival Tip #2 – Give Them Chores

I know, I know. This does not sound like summertime fun. I am not saying my children enjoy chores. They complain just enough to let me know they don’t appreciate it. But they don’t whine too much. If my kids give me a hard time about doing one chore, I have them do two chores instead. They have learned to keep their whining to a minimum.

We do chores all year long, not only during the summer, but having children home all day means there is more mess to clean and more hands to help clean it. I can’t do it all alone and I shouldn’t have to. Every single day my children help with something around the house. Taking out the trash, emptying the dishwasher, folding the laundry, feeding the dogs. These kinds of chores often take less than ten minutes to complete, but they teach life skills. I want to raise my children to be fully capable adults and this includes being able to do their own laundry and clean their own toilets. You are welcome, future spouses.

Survival Tip #3 – Have Fun With Them

I am not here to entertain my children all day long. They need to be able to entertain themselves. However, I am here to have fun with my children. I don’t sit back and watch my children participate in all of the fun activities, I join them. I don’t want to miss out on summertime memories.

Plan a lake day, put on your swimsuit, and jump in the water. Go on a bike ride. Take them bowling and show them how you throw a gutter ball. Walk down to the corner store, get an ice cream cone, and lick it while it melts sticky on your fingers. Stay up too late and watch a movie. Pull out the board games and sit down to play with them.

We have done all of these things this summer and I do not regret even one of them. I don’t want to be on the sidelines of my children’s memories, I want to be smack-dab in the middle.

Survival Tip #4 – Read

A good book is like a good friend, you can spend hours together and it will seem like only minutes. Find the good books. Give them to your children. Enlarge their world.

Four of my children are avid readers. It is easy to walk into any bookstore or library and find a stack of books they are eager to dive into. Two of my children struggle to read. It takes more work on my part to find a book they are willing to spend time with. I take the subjects/people/sports they enjoy in real life and look for books related to this topic. My daughter loves to play soccer. I found some biographies on professional women soccer players. She devoured them. My youngest loves superheroes and anything related to science. He is smart and inquisitive and asks a million questions, but he doesn’t enjoy reading. Here are some books I found to tempt him with.

While your children are reading, you might be able to enjoy a good book yourself. Here are my top three picks, the books I most enjoyed reading this summer. You guys, these books were AMAZING. I highly recommend adding them to your summer reading list.

Survival Tip #5 – Sprinkle Grace All Over It

Here’s the truth: I struggle with mom-guilt. My children are finally old enough to stay home alone but I feel guilty when I leave them too often. I work outside the home three mornings a week. I also have an editor who appreciates it if I meet my deadlines. Add to that grocery shopping, running errands, taking children to appointments, etc. Life is busy and I find myself feeling guilty that I am not spending enough time with my children.

Sprinkle grace all over that.

I worry I allow my children to spend too much time on electronics. I have loose boundaries on screen time, but the boundaries are fluid and change depending on my schedule. If I am working, they get more time. If I am home, they get less. If I am tired, cranky, and close to loosing my mind, they get more time. If I am well-rested, caffeinated, and ready to play, they get less. If I read an article about online predators, the dangers of social media with teens, or how computer screens are scientifically proven to rot your brains, I unplug everyone forever (or until my next article is due and I am faced with the reality of working from home.)

Sprinkle grace all over that.

Our summers are going to be loud and busy. Our kids are going to have fun and they are going to get bored. We are going to enjoy the lazy summer mornings and we are going to count down the days until school starts again.

Sprinkle grace all over it and enjoy the beautiful chaos of summer.

Blessings!