![\"Summer](\"https:\/\/cdn2.hubspot.net\/hubfs\/3295812\/GettyImages-938617348.jpg\")
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They say if you love something, let it go…so it\u2019s been swell, summer, but I\u2019m ready to say goodbye.<\/p>\n
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We had some good times: weekends at the cottage, family hikes, backyard barbecues with friends, outdoor concerts, ice cream cones on a hot day. We were loose about bedtime and meal times and honestly, I\u2019m not sure when my kids last had a proper bath (we\u2019ve been swimming a lot and I have decided that\u2019s close enough).<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s also been a hot, sweaty mess and I\u2019m over it.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m craving routine – sleep patterns I\u2019m not ashamed of, a consistent daytime schedule, 5pm weeknight family dinners followed by homework and showers and a few stories before bed. Swimming lessons every Tuesday and weekends that are jammed with all the quality time we can handle. That predictable, boring, suburban family life stuff that\u2019s as comforting as it is mundane.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m ready to know what\u2019s happening from week to week without checking my calendar three hundred times. Are the kids in camp? Do we have a babysitter? Do my husband and I have any days off, and if so, what are we going to do because THERE ARE ONLY SO MANY DAYS OFF, Lord knows, so we\u2019d better make it count. Is that peach festival happening? Or apple fest? Or maybe the butter tart festival? So many damn festivals, and we didn\u2019t go to any of them. Are those friends visiting from out of town? Is there a wedding or a baby shower or a family barbecue we\u2019re supposed to be at this weekend? (Summer is the height of event season, even when you\u2019re a 35-year-old mom with a limited social calendar.)<\/p>\n
I\u2019m also done with paying for childcare. My kids are 6 and 8 years old, so I\u2019ve become very accustomed to the public school system taking them out of the house all day while I work. In the summer, we choose between day camps and a patchwork of babysitters, both of which cost an arm and a leg. Come September, my bank account will be a little bit happier (until Christmastime, at least).<\/p>\n
I\u2019m ready for my kids to learn something new from someone other than me because I\u2019m told them all the things I know and now my brain is horribly, blissfully empty. We\u2019ve done all the crafts. We\u2019ve baked all the things. I\u2019ve answered SO MANY QUESTIONS and they\u2019ve watched like 25 episodes of Nailed It!<\/em> on Netflix because damn, Summer 2019, you were very thunderstorm-y. We may have started out with very little screen time but it\u2019s late August and I\u2019ve given up. Nicole Byers is now raising my children. I trust this will end well.<\/p>\n Finally, I\u2019m ready for the great equalizer that back to school provides for all parents. Summer is super hectic for stay-at-home moms who have to act as parent, housekeeper, camp counsellor, Jurassic Park-style raptor tamer and snack-bitch to her beloved offspring, who will be home all day long for two whole months. This is a big job (I\u2019ve been there) but the upside is that you get to spend a lot of time with your kids. (Similarly, the downside is that you spend SO MUCH TIME with your kids.)<\/p>\n As a working mom, summer means extra layers of mom guilt because instead of doing all of the above, you\u2019re…working. Your kids are with someone else. Which shouldn\u2019t make you feel guilty, but it does. I often find myself making mental lists of all the things I want to do with my kids – day trips to the beach, berry picking at a local farm, checking out that field of sunflowers nearby, finally visiting the children\u2019s museum a few towns over – and instead, I just work every day. My kids are perfectly happy running through the sprinkler with their babysitter, of course, but personally, I can\u2019t shake that summer pressure and guilt (and I know I\u2019m not alone).<\/p>\n So, thank you, summer, for all the good times we had – there genuinely were a lot. I enjoyed the fireworks and the long weekends and all those awesome, warm nights when I let the kids stay up waaaaay too late eating far too many popsicles because why the hell not. But like a summer fling in college that was never meant to last, this season is over and I\u2019m not particularly sad about it. I\u2019ll remember the good times fondly, but I\u2019ll also breathe a sigh of relief because change is good. Fall is good, routine is good, and I need this. A lot of us do. In a few short weeks, I\u2019ll be drinking a fall-themed latte while wearing my favourite boots again and summer will be nothing but a pleasant scene in my rear view mirror – and I\u2019m really, really okay with that.<\/p>\n ..<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" They say if you love something, let it go…so it\u2019s been swell, summer, but I\u2019m ready to say goodbye.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-539","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-mom-moments","7":"category-seasonal"},"yoast_head":"\n