Better Late
Some parents are so organized that summer plans for their kids are done. Not me.
This year, the reminder came on Facebook. When friends started posting status updates about camps and calendars -- more than one mentioned a spreadsheet -- I realized I had once again forgotten to plan our summer.
There are parents who keep tabs on every day camp from Salem to Scituate, tracking dates, costs, and the days that applications become available online. There are parents who arrange August vacation rentals in November. There are parents who buy bathing suits in February. And then there are parents like me.
I wake up some time in late spring to the realization that I will soon have 10 schoolless weeks to fill, and they're approaching faster than a speeding train to the beach. I quiz my daughters, who this year are 12 and 8, on their summer desires: They want neither to do nothing, nor to do anything in particular. One can't wait to go back to nature camp; the other won't hear of it. Someone mentions horses. We all have to lie down and recover.
In a frantic flurry of Googling, searching, and calling, I begin my quest. "Horse camp Boston" turns up Merrimac, Marlborough, and two hours a day in Milton. Craigslist nannies don't return e-mails. I wonder whether 8-year-olds can go to overnight camp for 10 weeks. I wonder who can possibly afford overnight camp for 10 weeks. I have to lie down again.
I envision taking the summer off, enjoying leisurely days of mother-daughter crafts, picnics, and field trips. Then I envision endless fights over who gets the computer, endless refrains of "I'm bored," and an endlessly depleted bank account.
In the end, it always works out. I cobble together camps, a neighborhood teenager suddenly available to baby-sit, a friend with a nanny to share, a couple of days at work with Mommy or Daddy. My daughters have fun and get bored, go to drama camp and watch Hannah Montana marathons. I relax on the beach while they build sand castles. And we do it all without a spreadsheet.
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Question of the Week:
For a fulfilling summer, what's the right balance of planning and spontaneity?
Next week: When idle chat becomes gossip.
Last week: Do you have family dinner nights?
