ajcjobs > BlogBreak > Archives > 2007 > August > 15 > Entry
As the summer draws to a close…
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you’re a working parent, summer’s over and you have to be breathing a sigh of relief. Having the kids back in school - in an identified location for 7-8 hours a day can be so comforting after a summer of not being sure where they are or trying to pull fun activities out of a hat on a daily basis so they won’t be “bored”. I’ll trade helping with homework, dealing with occasional obnoxious teachers or rigid requirements any day to the stress of trying to balance job with the schedules and unexpected activities of kids during the summer.
What worked for you this year? Personally, I found that a good series of sports camps, some overnight camps and a little planned tutoring kept my son off the street, generally happy and in productive mode. Despite the initial resistance, at the end of each experience, he admitted enjoyment, made some new friends and often learned something. Another thing that worked was proactive planning. Impromptu or planned strategic strikes like inviting the friends to our house for pizza and music or the occasional trip to White Water kept the teenage floundering around for something to do in the evenings at a minimum.
My pet peeve for the summer was the “summer reading assignment”. Ok, I know they need to keep up their reading and that the summer just cannot be completely hedonistic but what’s with this? We had to have 25 current events articles summarized, indexed and pasted onto sheets of paper neatly logged into a notebook. Another family had 5 “classic” novels with summaries for each. All of these assignments are due “the first day of school” with dire consequences promised if not completed. Ok, how many of you found out about this the last week of the summer vacation and had to really push the kid to finish?
What were your successes on the family front this summer? What were the disasters? How did this impact your workload at the office?
Did you have those long nights when the teens were out of the house till the wee hours while you spent the evening at home waiting and worrying about being sharp the next day? What was your backup plan when the daycare options fell through? Let’s have a recap and get ready for next year.
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