Summertime! No school bells, no homework, just long, lazy days stretching into warm summer nights. Heaven, right? Well...it could be, but if you listen closely, you might also hear some whining, complaining, and other no-fun attitudes coming from your kids. We’ve asked long-time Helen Jon friend and mom of three, Katie Moreland, what she does to avoid the summertime “I Don’t Want To’s...” Let’s just say, we think her 19 years of parenting and her excellent advice are very helpful!
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(Blish Connor and Katie Moreland wearing special edition Helen Jon poolside)
Awww summertime! Time for sleeping in, enjoying relaxing mornings in pjs, and easy-going breakfasts...uh…not so much!
Most families’ schedules in the summertime are chock-full of activities. Here are some tips and tricks that I’ve learned throughout my 19 years as a mom to help keep your summer days and nights filled with more fun and good times.
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Sign them up for what they love! My kids all loved swim team. But I will never forget the freak-out my daughter had the second week of summer about going to junior golf. I knew she didn’t like it, but I was forcing her to go because I thought it would be fun for her. Later that day, I pulled her out and cancelled junior golf for her for the rest of the summer. And—the best part—the two of us did a fun something alone together every Thursday for the rest of the summer while her brothers were at golf.
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Enlist older kids! My kids have always been so fortunate to have such great role models in older kids. A couple days each week, I’d ask some of our favorite teenagers to pick them up and take them to practice or golf, so they would look forward to going. On really tough mornings, they snapped out of their crabbiness a little quicker when they had to get in the car with someone other than me!
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YES days!! A few days during the summer we would have YES days! That meant that anything they wanted to do that day (within reason!)…YES day…YES! But if they complained too much leading up to the YES day about activities, then the YES day was a goner! (Bribery at its finest.)
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JOMO…Joy of Missing Out! It’s easy to get sucked into the social part of summer and “everyone is going to (fill in the blank), so we need to be there.” Enjoy just being together as a family, and then when you really have to go to something, it won’t be so hard to load up the car.
- Fun for all ages! Summer has always been my favorite season and is such a special time for my family. Even though our dynamic has changed (with two high schoolers and one college kid living at home) I always try to carve out one-on-one time with each of them. It could be as easy as a Target run or, yes…even a funny text or Snapchat exchange, but carving out a time during the day just to say “I love you” or “I miss you,” I think, can go a long way and make those harder times of “I just can’t” turn into “I've got this!”
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Thank you, Katie. We love your tips and tricks for bringing more fun to our summers.