Summing Up Summer And Figuring It Out

I like things to have a theme; I like to be able to look back and easily sum things up in three words or a couple of sentences. Like the golden autumn when everything was shiny and sparkling and brilliant. Followed by literal and metaphorical November rain. Or the summer holiday with inauspicious beginnings that turned out to be the best one ever.

But when I look back on this summer, I can’t put my finger on what kind of summer it was. There’s no theme jumping out. It was a fine summer. Fine. The weather was mixed, and dictated that some days were spent entirely at home, stepping over one another and feeling all the cabin fever, but mostly we took a chance and went out, packing rain jackets and crossing fingers.

Poolbeg chimneys and Sandymount Strand - Office Mum
Sandymount Strand

We did everything I could possibly think of – we went to all the parks, we climbed hills, we visited a Georgian House, we went on a boat to Dalkey Island, we went to Sandymount Strand and Sandycove beach.

Sandymount Strand - Office Mum
Sandymount Strand

Some of those days were wonderful, and some made me wonder why we bothered at all. Most were a mix – good bits and bad bits, with photos to prove the good bits happened (and somewhat blurring away the bad bits).

Marley Park walled garden - Office Mum
Marlay Park

We went out because getting out of the house seems like the right thing to do, but also because it forced me to put aside work and focus on the kids.

Because that was the other thing about this summer – the work and home lines were more blurred than ever. I was busier than I expected to be (a good thing!) but this had its downsides – like doing a phone interview with a psychologist while my four-year-old stood on front of me going “Blah, blah, blah” really loudly until I had to end the call (luckily the lovely person at the end of the phone has three kids of her own and completely understood – she was so nice about it all it made me cry.)

So while having summer at home with the kids and working around them sounds idyllic, it was far from it – there were many times when I felt I was failing on all fronts. At home, the kids never really had my full attention, so going out most afternoons was the trick to fix it.

Airfield - Office Mum
Airfield

But by the beginning of this week, although I didn’t wish for school runs and uniforms, I had utterly run out of ideas of places to go, and I was tired of packing picnics into backpacks and kids into cars. But the forecast for Wednesday was good, and after a day of rain, it seemed clear we had to go out. The kids were playing – they’d made a car out of a cardboard box, and were still in their pyjamas when I asked them to choose between Cabinteely Park, the People’s Park or Sandymount Strand.

“Do we have to mum? Can’t we just stay here? We were going to go out on our bikes and make a video of it.”

And suddenly I got it – I could see why the summer was just “fine” – I could see what we were missing. My own memories of childhood summers are not only of beach trips and forest picnics – the clearest memory of all is just being at home. Cycling around the green with my friend Sarah. Playing chasing. Annoying the boys. Being annoyed by the boys. Spotting squished “bloodsuckers” on our legs after we’d been sitting on walls. Holding jumble sales. Turning wardrobe shelves into doll houses. Making perfume out of dandelions. Camping in the garden. Rollerskating. Singing alone to Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance With Somebody. Making up dance routines to The Jets’ Crush on You. Reading in the garden. Playing, running, climbing – just being at home.

And this year, because we’d rushed to parks and beaches every time the sun came out, we’d missed that bit. Our home days were punctuated by rain and grey and indoor games – we didn’t have lazy days in the garden or playing on the green.

And sure, staying home would mean blurred lines and laptop distraction for me, but if the kids were happy cycling their bikes, then what harm. So belatedly, but not quite too late, I figured out the answer.

“Of course we can stay at home,” I said. And we did. And we did it the next day too. They continued building their cardboard car, they made videos, they coloured, they cycled their bikes, they called to their friends, they had lunch in the garden and ice-creams from the freezer.

Colouring in the garden - office mum
The back garden

And you can guess the rest – they truly were some of our favourite days this summer.

Perhaps we need distance to see a theme – like the way we clearly remember what people wore in the 70s and the 80s, but noughties are not yet so obvious. Maybe that’s why only now at the end of the summer, and in writing this post, I can see that it was fine, but that it was my practice run as a work at home parent. And maybe we need practice runs and learning curves to get things right. Next year we’ll still have days out and parks and picnics but we’ll have home days too, especially when the sun is out, so they can do everything I did as a kid.

Oh, and the other thing I’ve learned is that I need the odd summer camp too. Yes to creating memories and yes to childhood nostalgia, but I’m not a complete martyr – next year there will be camps.

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10 thoughts on “Summing Up Summer And Figuring It Out”

  1. We did more of those ‘stay at home’ days this year, and they really were some of the best. Like today, one of my children is not very well, so we didn’t arrange any playdates. But he spent the afternoon in the garden playing happily with his little brother and they seemed more chilled than most of the rest of the Summer. It was lovely to watch. It was like they chose to take a day off from it all and they really relished it! It certainly puts a new spin on what we think we should be doing and the guilt we feel if we don’t!
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    1. And I think with all of it, there’s still no universal answer – the unplanned, unexpected days at home you and I have just had have been wonderful, but I can imagine (in my house at least) if I tried it for three wet days in a row, we’d all have lost the plot half way through day too! I guess the consistent and slightly boring answer is balance 🙂

  2. My girls have developed a lovely friendship with a little neighbour this summer and over the past couple of weeks the three of them have either been spending all day in my house or in the house two doors down (with shorter visits to the two baby boys that also live in our street in between). It’s been amazing. They’ve developed a game involving toy dogs and multiple cardboard boxes that has been going on over all that time and that us grownups can’t follow at all. And I really think that that’s what they’ll remember about this summer the most. Not the day trips (we did lots of those too) or the little ‘holidays’ or anything else. It’ll be the new sense of community that’s suddenly developed and the freedom to just ‘play’.

    Long live simple summers!

    P.S. All that said, there’ll definitely camps next year here too…
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    1. Isn’t it so lovely! And the games they come up with, and how important those games are, and how into them they get. And every expert says free play is so important for kids – it’s lovely to live somewhere that allows them to do that. And hurrah for cardboard boxes!

  3. Oh my good lord I was the exact same!!! I found it hard to draw a line underneath the Summer and when I think back on it we had not only great days out, but he great days at home too, with many family games of hide and seek and football, treasure hunts, sports days … i think where we fell down was that we didn’t stay away (except in my mother’s house) for even one night,and we didn’t go to any mad fun fairs or theme parks where in my head I was planning for a summer of non stop moving. Funny that the weather has picked up and with the kids not back to school until next Wednesday, we still aren’t saying the Summer is over yet, I feel like I’m clinging on a bit this year! And some of my best childhood moments were in Summer camps (first pony camp then Pine Forest Art Centre which was magical!) Great post and thanks for many more great posts over the Summer, I really enjoyed them and got some great ideas too(most bloggers’ blogs on free days out in Dublin simply involved walks, which, while always good, doesn’t provide the stimulation some of your suggestions had)!

    1. We were the same – planned to do loads of days out and then the weather and time conspired against us, but looking back now, I think we’re good. Family games of hide and seek and football and treasure hunts and sports days sounds brilliant – I think you had a great summer. Now I’m thinking “We should have had a family game of hide and seek” 🙂

  4. I totally get this, when my four are together, I see the fighting, the pecking order and sometimes it breaks me. But given enough time I see them bond and imagine and suddenly it’s all worth it. Sometimes we need to step back and just let them be…and that’s when memories are made.
    Life on Hushabye Farm recently posted…Holiday HellMy Profile

    1. Same here – there’s so much squabbling but then those moments when I see them holding hands or laughing their heads off or deeply engrossed in a big game, it’s all OK again. If only there was a way to predict which way it will go on any given day and make decisions accordingly!

  5. This just reminds me of the quote: Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.

    Everyday is a learning curve and next year you’ll have a better idea of what do and how to do and each year it’ll get a bit easier until something (and it only has to be one thing) changes and the you’re straight back to the start again trying to figure everything out!!

    1. That’s a wonderful quote – I’ve heard it in different, more convoluted forms but that’s so succinct and so true. And yes you’re absolutely right, as soon as we think we have it all figured out, everything changes again. I am always reminded of a friend who had a perfect day out with her two children one weekend afternoon – they took the train to Howth and got ice cream and had a walk around and it was perfect. Two weeks later, they did it again, and it was a complete disaster. There was no difference, except somehow it all went wrong. Parenting!

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