Mamas, What If We’re the Ones Making Summer So Hard?

Full disclosure, I quit this summer before it started. I’ve resorted to frying pan drums in the kitchen just to allow myself a breath because I refuse to be the grand marshal of this summer circus.

Remember when we were kids and we rode our bikes around the neighborhood, ran through sprinklers, and drank out of the garden hose?

Didn’t you eat bomb-pops for lunch and your mom count swimming as a bath?

Wasn’t yours the yard where all the kids would play the most gnarly games of Red Rover and then drink lil’ hugs juice jugs in all their high fructose glory?

Friends, we need to give ourselves a freaking BREAK!

I get it. It’s not 1989 anymore. I really do.

But what if we traded in the lavish vacations for camping or the Pinterest crafts for coloring?

What if we let them eat PB&J for lunch four days in a row, or didn’t fuss over the princess costume they’ve worn like a uniform for a week straight?

What if we sat by the pool and let them swim without helicoptering over them like crazy people?

Mama, I know raising kids today is terrifying. I know there is hella pressure on us, like errrrryday.

But we need to chill the heck out and have ourselves a good old fashioned early 90’s summer where the highlights are sparklers and drive-in-movies, and where the kids are sweaty from playing in the yard so we turn on the sprinklers and call it bath time.

Sure, it may not look like everyone else’s July, but friend, I promise you that in the downfall of the garden hose drops is where you will make the most memorable moments with your kiddos and it will cost you nothing.

So, if you need me from now until August, I’ll be poolside at a friend’s house while my kids play risky games of chicken and practice their cannonballs while I’m reading or having personal dance parties to JT like any good early 90s mama because momming is hard enough without the added expectations.