Silly Summers

Our daughter finished school this week and came home wanting to go EVERYWHERE! “Can we go to a water park?!”

“I want to go camping!”

“Can we see the mountains!?”

“Daddy, can we ride bikes and roller skates?!”

“I want to plant a garden!”

“Can we go swimming?”

“I want to go to a playground!”

So many requests. They came all at once and on the same day! As a parent, you want to say yes to all of this, it would be so much fun. As an adult, who doesn’t get a summer vacation…you have to budget time (and money).

There’s only 12 weeks off during the summer, and already every day and weekend is stuffed full of something. Any hopes of a vacation this year are wasted, unless it’s a short two day get away.

On my last day off, I had laundry to do and a kitchen to clean, projects that have been stagnant needing some headway. I took her with me to the home improvement store, she was talking about everything she saw. After a few items entered the cart, she pretended the cart was a car and was steering, calling out the directions she wanted me to turn.

I grabbed a furring strip for a drywall repair and stuck it into the cart. It was about six feet long, so it stuck out of both ends of the cart. Splitting the difference, I had about two feet off the nose of the cart. She pretended the wood was a lance and she was a knight.

After we got home, we poured potting mix into pots and planted seeds for watermelon, cantaloupe, bell peppers, rosemary, and lavender. She placed the pots in a spot out of the way and helped me water them.

About thirty minutes passed and she was begging me for a bike ride. Earlier in the week I didn’t want her watching tv all day, so I got her out on her bike while I ran beside, behind and in front of her. She just pedaled along chatting and smiling.

She rode for 2 miles. Then played with a neighborhood friend for about ten minutes while I completed another mile. Then she joined me for a ride/run home.

While cooking dinner, I was thinking about all the things we did and the things that made her happy. It brought a huge smile to my face to picture her steering the cart, pretending to be a knight, watering the plants we just planted, and riding her bike. This is what it is all about.

While thinking about all of that, I thought about our son who is well into his teens now. He’s come around a little, again, to doing things with us, however his friends are more fun than his parents now adays. It’s ok. That’s how it’s supposed to go.

The cruelty of it is, there will be a point that she no longer wants to play with me. A point where she no longer pretends to be anything but a successful, beautiful young woman. The point where, while loved deeply, my silliness just isn’t what entertains her anymore.

We only get so many Silly Summers. From about age 3-11, if you’re lucky, is all we get. Don’t waste it. Ride those bikes. Go swimming. Play on the playground. Go see the mountains and go to a water park. Take every moment you’re given and don’t look back. It doesn’t last long enough, yet feels like forever when you’re in it.