Guest Blogger Mrs Miller: Enjoying the Summer
Can I be honest?
I have a problem with this quote.
I saw it last year and I saw it this year.
I see it every year.
And it sits with me.
But it doesn’t sit well with me.
And i think that’s because it creates guilt. It creates pressure…to be the perfect parent; to create the perfect summer for your perfect children; to have a perfect time.
We don’t all have the finances, the resources or the energy to plan out a perfect school holiday. Day trips alone take time to organise. You have to plan way ahead; get the dates you want and the times you want. Then you need to book your own time off work, book the parking and the travel whilst throwing yet more money at the situation for service station snacks or meals out or entrance fees. And that’s just a day trip- what about heading abroad?
When we were little, there was nowhere to post your idyllic beach photos or your #blessed hashtags. We grew up waiting for our photos to be developed, not knowing where our friends were holidaying or how they were spending their days. And it’s the same for your children. They likely don’t have access to social media. They don’t know what everyone else is up to. They don’t care. They take joy in choosing the film to watch; balancing the bowl of popcorn on the living room floor. They remember the bike ride round the park or climbing the tallest tree. They live for being given the pound coin in the sweet shop or being allowed to choose a cake from the bakers. The picnics in the garden and the walks in the sunshine; the relaxing on the sofa or the lazy lie ins are the moments they relish and are the ones to catch as we fly through this rollercoaster called life.
So please don’t add more pressure to yourself. Indeed I will think myself very blessed if I’m lucky enough to have 18 summers with my children- I know many are sadly not as lucky and will tell you that nothing in life is a given. But I would hope that at 18 it doesn’t just stop. That I would still be able to enjoy more summers with them- whatever those summers may look like.
Keep it simple.
Happy.
Healthy.
Balanced.
Don’t fall in the trap!! ❤️
And do you know what?! If you look at the original quote this wasn’t what the author intended it to reflect either!
