Last week, I schlepped Emma “over the mountain” for Irish dance camp, which she loved. but it was quite time-consuming. But I loved the fact that it freed me up from other responsibilities so that Tess and I spent time together chatting, shopping, looking at books and magazines.
This week, Tess will be doing ballet camp, right around the corner. Emma and I will have all afternoon together. Sometimes I look at Emma and want to grab her and say “Stay. Stay. Right where you are. No more growing.”
At 9-years-old, she is right at the edge of so many changes, most of which will take her slightly away from me. Hopefully not too far…
Some people keep their kids much busier than I do during the summer. I think they are afraid of too much time on thier hands with thier own children. Or maybe they want to keep thier kids busy for other reasons. We usually do one camp each and that’s it. Other parents don’t want to sign thier kids up for anything, and I certainly understand that, as well.
But for me, little touchstones of structure really help throughout the summer. Otherwise, I think we could slide into a never-reachable summer abyss and be slapped really hard by the reality of fall. So that’s what works for us.
