Mine are 15, 14, 8, and 5 and we’re in the same logistical summer nightmare as you. I’ve already written a note to myself that we don’t need to do swimming lessons next summer. I did come in with a plan to do some things and I’ve already crossed them off the list (the kids didn’t know about them).
Those incisive comments from offspring are so humbling! Thank you for your reminder to hold our plans loosely and embrace detachment. My summer reminder to myself has been "diligence" because it's easy to let things go in summertime, but I think I'm going to modify it to "diligence and detachment" - much less likely to end in heaps of mom guilt!
This is beautiful, Nell; thank you for sharing! I'm closer to the season of being the kids in this scenario, and as the oldest in a large family, I'm always aspiring to bring my own adult life into more and more order (and utterly failing: my memories are largely from the everyone-running-everywhere phase, so I have very little experience with a life that can be scheduled into control 😋) - but what a great reminder that, even if we _could_ control it, is that really the goal? Unless we're scheduling "love" in every block, that will quickly miss the point.
Mine are 15, 14, 8, and 5 and we’re in the same logistical summer nightmare as you. I’ve already written a note to myself that we don’t need to do swimming lessons next summer. I did come in with a plan to do some things and I’ve already crossed them off the list (the kids didn’t know about them).
Haha I love it
Those incisive comments from offspring are so humbling! Thank you for your reminder to hold our plans loosely and embrace detachment. My summer reminder to myself has been "diligence" because it's easy to let things go in summertime, but I think I'm going to modify it to "diligence and detachment" - much less likely to end in heaps of mom guilt!
that’s beautiful
This is beautiful, Nell; thank you for sharing! I'm closer to the season of being the kids in this scenario, and as the oldest in a large family, I'm always aspiring to bring my own adult life into more and more order (and utterly failing: my memories are largely from the everyone-running-everywhere phase, so I have very little experience with a life that can be scheduled into control 😋) - but what a great reminder that, even if we _could_ control it, is that really the goal? Unless we're scheduling "love" in every block, that will quickly miss the point.