Tomorrow’s the first day of school around here. If you think that’s early, consider that the last day of school was May 22. That’s eighty days ago. And unfortunately, the older we get, the faster those eighty days pass.As I tucked my three youngest kids into bed tonight, I asked each of them about their summer. It’s probably the most common question spoken in our town this week, “How was your summer?”To my extreme pleasure—and frankly, my partial surprise—each of them proclaimed their summer to have been great. My oldest son, who will turn eleven next month, and is most like me when it comes to nostalgia and reminiscing, began to tear up. “I don’t want the summer to end,” he said. “I had so much fun.”What more could I hope for as a parent than that?Sometime in early spring, usually right before spring break, when it’s been quite a few weeks since the last break from school, and the winter has beaten us into submission, and forty degrees feels like shorts weather, I tell my wife, “I’m going to make a list of things for us to do this summer so we don’t waste any days.”And then I do nothing. Something else comes up. Or I think, “Oh, it’s only March, we’ve got a couple of months to think about it.” Or it’s just too difficult to imagine the possibilities that accompany warm weather when we’re still freezing, so nothing comes to mind. Whatever the case, the list is never made.Still, we do a pretty good job of keeping active during the summer. We try to have adventures, travel a bit, spend some time at the beach. Inevitably there are a few days where we ask the kids, “What do you want to do today?” and they have no suggestions.But this summer was different.Because of a number of factors mostly involving adults and adult problems, I suspected my kids didn’t have as much fun as they should have this summer. We didn’t make it to Holiday World. We didn’t go camping. No family outing to the drive-in. Even the sprinkler was barely used, and never mind the usual water balloon fight.I worried about this all summer, but particularly the last week or two as I saw the first day of school approaching. I’m obsessed with time and feel its passage acutely and intensely. Our kids only have so many summers, and those summers only have so many days. And it seems the loss of a summer day is much more heartbreaking than the loss of a winter day.I panicked that my kids would forever talk about the Lost Summer of 2015.It seems as if I worried for nothing.“It was great!” my oldest son said. “So much fun,” said his brother, who just turned nine. Their four-year-old sister who’s not even starting preschool for a few more weeks agreed. “It was good!”Of course they had fun. Anything goes during summer in these parts.Stay up until one or two o’clock in the morning? Sure. Sleep until noon? Of course! Video games? Why not.
But lest we think they wasted their summer sleeping and staring at screens, I don’t want to forget the fun we had. Walks to the park. Canoeing. Days at the beach house and on the beach. Lincoln Park Zoo. Community pool. Fourth of July fireworks and parade. Ice cream cones galore. Pizza and beer (although the kids didn’t have beer).So no, maybe this wasn’t summer that I had intended. Maybe things didn’t go exactly as planned, and maybe we left some fun on the table.But maybe those are just things that adults worry about because we know that our kids now have one fewer summer remaining. And we know next summer will seem shorter than this summer. And we know that like any other great thing in life, a great summer is not guaranteed.The kids don’t worry about that though. They’re just having fun. They’re staying up late, playing games, talking to their friends, watching their favorite shows, climbing on swing sets, riding their bikes, building sandcastles, skipping stones, catching fish, listening to cicadas, and forgetting that summer doesn’t last forever.For them summer is enough. It doesn’t matter what they do. They’re not in school, it’s warm outside, and they’re young.What more could they ask for?I mean, besides another summer.PREVIOUS POST: Persistence and Its RewardsIF YOU LIKED THIS POST I BET YOU'LL ALSO LIKE: Summer is Worth Complaining About+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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