Do you plan kids' activities all summer for them?
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Aster (
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May 19th, 2014
It’s a whole other world out there. My daughter has two kids and each day is planned out or almost every day to ward off boredom. I expected to be bored the last month of summer vacation. Now I see mothers, mostly, letting friends spend the night, taking their kids to the movies, to the mall and out to lunch, to the zoo and amusement parks. I had none of this. I was so thrilled that school was over that I happily rode my bike everywhere often with a friend but sometimes alone and loved having my sister and her family come over. My mother never planned anything with the rare exception of shopping in the city . What about you? Are your kids left to entertain themselves all summer or do you have an entertainment schedule thought out?
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No, but it’s a different world now then it was when I was little. When I was little, I would play all day in my grandmother’s neighborhood, or in my neighborhood. I would walk by myself or with a friend, someplace a few miles away (age 7 and up). In the summer, I went to day camp and was free on the weekends.
Now, kids don’t do that. Once Etan Patz got kidnapped in Greenwich Village, right out on the street, everything changed. Older kids may play in their neighborhood, but you will never see a kid walking alone or with another kid, like I did when I was little.
Oh hell no! When they get bored is when they get creative.
I don’t have children, but when I was a kid we did go to day camp part of the summer or spend a few weeks with my grandma. Also, the elementary school had summer programs that you could go to and do art projects or play some sports. You could just wander into the school at any time and you were welcomed. There was a small up front fee of something like $10 for the summer that helped them buy supplies I think. Moms volunteered to staff the program. I also went to sleep away camp some years for two weeks.
Not every day was scheduled though. We played in the park or in our neighborhood, or spent time at the pool. I don’t remember how old we needed to be to go to the pool without an adult. The first couple of weeks after school ended I think I was happy to sleep late and do next to nothing.
I would tell the kids to give me a list of 10 things they wanted to do during the summer, and I would try to make it happen. Sometimes they would put Disneyland on the list, and that is expensive and difficult, since it isn’t close, but they would also list Waterslides and the Zoo and the Beach, and those are easily doable.
^^ Reminds me of something my parents did once: Because we weren’t going away that year, each of us was allowed to choose three “destinations” we would like to pretend-travel to. I chose the Antarctic and Africa, for example, my sister chose “land of milk and honey.” Then, my mum planned some activities. We went to the movies to watch “Antarctica”, spent a day driving to an enormous zoo and, for the “land of milk and honey”, stuffed ourselves with sweets. Each day was planned without us knowing, so the holidays were interrupted by incredibly fun surprise outings.
I’m looking forward to doing that with my own kids :]
^^ Sure! Spread the idea, it was lovely!!
Well, it was cool, anyway!
^ I’ll take your word for it :]
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