Summer break is quickly approaching its halfway point, and I’m starting to realize that we really haven’t done much this summer.
In the spring I had dreams of creating a simple summer schedule that we would follow, and even planned a bucket list of places to take my kids. This is the last time that I’ll have my middle daughter, Georgia, home full days before she heads off to kindergarten in September. That reality has hit me hard, and I have wanted to create a special time with her and her sisters, time that we could look back on a cherish when we’re apart.
But life doesn’t always adhere to a schedule, and last week we spent almost every single day indoors. My youngest, Eloise, endured a very high fever and a double ear infection, and required non-stop care and attention.
I felt terrible not being able to take my kids out to the park or do fun things with them. It was a really difficult week, and all of our plans went out the window, while I worked hard to just manage our day without losing my mind. Toward the end of the week I knew that I needed to figure out a different plan because I was at the end of my rope.
Enter: summer day camp! What a blessing it is to have so many different options within Guelph, and I even managed to find a few with openings for my two oldest children. I registered my kids on Friday to start summer camp on Monday, and spent the weekend agonizing over whether I had made the right decision. Of course my ideal was that I would not need to spend money this summer, since I am home to care for my children, but I also needed to accept the reality that I was going to lose my mind if I didn’t release my own summer expectations.
I was especially nervous sending my sweet four-year-old to camp all day, when I had planned to savour all the time I had with her this summer.
On Monday morning my kids walked out of their home with their packed lunches and brand new backpacks. It felt a bit like a trial run for school in September, and I watched nervously as my kids held hands and walked out the front door. At drop-off, my oldest daughter, Penny, felt nervous to go inside the school, and it was Georgia who grabbed her hand and said, “It’s OK, Penny. You don’t have to be nervous.”
Sending my kids to day camp made me realize that they don’t need my constant and undivided attention in order to have a great summer. In fact, this week Penny and Georgia are forging new friendships, and creating lots of wonderful summer memories. I’ve always been able to recharge my battery and rest this week, ready to tackle the remaining weeks of summer with them.
Taking a step back and releasing my children is one of the best things I can do to prepare them for this world. It is scary, especially because I love to have control and know what my kids are up to, but the act of releasing my kids in the morning and coming back in the late afternoon has been great practice for the upcoming fall, when I’ll be sending them off to school, every day.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We still have five more weeks of summer!
