I’ve always loved summer here on the East coast. Lord knows we get enough snow and the ice doesn’t melt out of the lakes until mid-May. With temperatures nearing the freezing range sometimes as early as October, that doesn’t leave much of a summer.
My kiddos usually have lots of snow days and are in school until the end of June. Before you know it, July 4th hits and then summer slips by like a melting ice cream cone.
But this year is definitely going to be different. My daughter’s birthday falls in June and we won’t be having a party, or going shopping at the mall shopping like we usually do. None of the fairs or festivals we look so forward to going to will be open. The summer camp my youngest looks so forward to going to is canceled.
Many of the local ice cream stands aren’t opening and I’m not sure if our beautiful beaches on the ocean will be open.
Related: Why I’m Letting My Kids Be Bored This Summer
If and when it’s okay for my teens to socialize, I’m going to have to limit their time spent with friends. It’s going to be hard on them, and I’ll be thinking about all the ‘what ifs’ that have been added to our already overflowing worry list.
Without online learning I know our kids are going to be even more bored. By the summertime they are going to be feeling the effects of not seeing their friends even more. And when we compile all the other disappointment– not being able to celebrate the 4th of July, my daughters birthday, or doing any of the things we look so forward to each and every summer, I’m not sure how I’ll handle it.
I’m already starting to panic about it.
I hope I am able to be everything my kids need me to be while still taking care of my mental health.
I hope their boredom and complaining doesn’t drive me insane and I hope mine doesn’t put them in a bad place.
I hope I’m able to let them vent and give them the ray of light they need without me painting a false, overly sweet picture.
And I really, really hope at least one of our favorite ice cream parlors open because Lord knows we need a little something to look forward to.
The thing about this pandemic is you never know what’s coming. From one day to the next your emotions are out of whack. You wake up and feel full of hope and life and think, I’m going to make this a productive day!
Then, before you know it you come crashing down and want so badly for things to go back to the time when you didn’t worry about the state of the economy, if your kids were going to be okay because of social isolation, and having to carve out an afternoon to wait in line for the grocery store and wipe everything down before putting it away only existed in horror novels.
I will give it my all to make this a great summer– one me and my kids will remember. But, I’d be lying if I told you I wasn’t dreading it.
We’ve never experienced a summer like this and none of us know what to expect. I believe we are entitled to a little bit of panic. It doesn’t make us weak. It makes us human.
