Have fun and enjoy each other this summer

It is almost summer! Every kid’s dream, and a challenge for many parents.
I stand in awe at how hard our kids work. They get up early in the morning and have to get dressed, eat breakfast and get out the door. All of this happens pretty early. Then, they spend the entire day at school and many of them also stay in some sort of afterschool care. Then we parents, after a long and often stressful day at work, pick them up. We are tired and stressed. We have to figure out what is for supper and then cook. There is also cleanup from supper. Then comes World War III … homework.
This schedule seems to set us up for conflict and tension with our children. This schedule often can reduce our spousal communication to the logistics of doing the impossible amount of tasks we have. Our kids feel it too.
I offer this as a backdrop to some unsolicited advice I would like to give. It is great to plan activities and/or camps for our children. It is a great opportunity to learn some cool things that really interest our kids, but we don’t seem to have the time for. But my advice is this, we should be intentional about the activities we choose. Specifically, we should be careful about the amount of time we keep our kids engaged. I think they need downtime. They need some rest, and so do parents.
It is OK for our kids to be bored. It is in times of boredom that our imaginations find room to roam. It is in unstructured activities that our kids can learn how to make rules and resolve conflict. Yes, they will fail and may often call for a referee (known as mom or dad). But those very failures to solve it themselves is good for their development.
Our kids can be a great delight. Often our hectic schedules can infringe on the joy of being with them. Let’s use this summer as an opportunity to have fun and enjoy each other!
— Pat Arensberg is the Director of the Office for Evangelization and Family Life. Email him at [email protected] 
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