If I have to choose between parenting my children and
driving them to an activity, I’ll pick the activity every time. Before I had multiple children, I judged
parents who over schedule their spawn. Of course, I also bought into Dr.
Laura’s “Don’t have them if you don’t want to raise them” slogan. Sadly, I didn't know I didn't want to raise them until after I had them.
Children fight. This isn't shocking. Thanks to my brother, I
still hold a grudge over my nickname, Chewbacca, not to mention I’m slightly
obsessive about shaving. So instead of allowing my children to damage each
other, we separate them as much as possible by enlisting them in every activity
they show marginal interest in. This philosophy has served us well. At school,
our kids are viewed as well-rounded leaders. During the few hours the kids are
home, they’re too tired to argue.
Which leads to my current problem – summer. Everyone loves
summer. Everyone except me. You’ll never hear me complain about winter or cold.
(Although I might have a full-on coronary when school is cancelled for snow.) Summer
combines everything I hate most: a lack of routine, a house full of bored kids,
and heat.
As of next Thursday, I am taking over for my kids’ teachers
and coaches. As a stay-at-home mom, summer is my busiest season. It’s the time I have to train them for
everything they’re missing in their life curriculum plus reinforce school
topics that either require extra assistance or are lacking altogether. That sentence sounds great in theory, doesn't it? Like something from a parenting magazine. But the truth is that it’s
freaking hard work and I don’t mean for them – it’s hard for me.
I’ll supervise and instruct our kids as they complete assigned
tasks at home. These tasks take 10x longer and don’t meet my expectations when
my children help, so I will bite my lip and attempt to be positive (and if you
know me at all, you know that’s a lot of work in itself).
I will tutor them
with supplementary schoolwork. For the past few years, I've assigned a math
sheet every day and one book report a week. It takes me longer to prep and
check the work than it does for the kids to do it, but they don’t backslide
during the summer months.
Don’t get me wrong – we don’t run our house like a boot camp
– but we crave routine. We’ll swim every day and play tennis, but I’ll set
aside an hour for school work and an hour for chores so that the kids will
appreciate their free time. Sometimes I wish my kids were content sitting in
front of a television, but then I remember that I’m not either. So if the choice
is to schedule them or listen to them fight, I’ll still pick the activity every
time – even when I have to do all the work and teach them myself. But I'm counting the minutes until the teachers take them again.
