Work Hard, Play Harder

Summer is quickly approaching. 

In just a few weeks, everyone will be home from school, all day, all together. It will be a matter of time until I feel like a personal chef, cleaning lady, activities director, referee, and uber driver. Don’t get me wrong, I love spending the summer with my boys. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. But I must admit, sometimes I get frustrated by the extra craziness that comes with it. I want to avoid that this year. I want everyone to enjoy the summer this year, so I am going to start off with some reasonable expectations up front. 

First, I am going to implement a little more structure to our fun summers. I’ve seen how well our kids respond to structure at school, so I am going to bring a little of that back home with us this year. I am going to set up a daily schedule for the boys to see what is planned for the day. Nothing fancy, just a handwritten chalkboard that tells us what practice, game, playdate we have scheduled for the day. Hopefully, this will help us plan and avoid the “What are we doing today,” that gets asked every 47 seconds.

Secondly, They are going to have chores and responsibilities this year. I’m not looking to have my kids spend their whole summer slaving away, but I don’t want to have to ask my 11 year old every day to make his bed and put his laundry away. I created a quick sheet to show them what is expected of them. Once their chores and work are done, they can go outside and play with their friends, but not until then. Here is the summer expectation sheet I created. Drop me an email if you’d like me to customize one for your family.

Lastly and most importantly, we are going to have fun! Afterall, it is summer break! we are going to have playdates, sleepovers, and tackle the world’s largest summer bucket list. We are going to be silly. We will have water balloon fights, family game nights, movies under the stars, bonfires, trips to the park, pool parties and so much more. but in order for this mom to enjoy all that, i need just a little help. We are going to get the “work” done early, so we can play the rest of the day away.