Planning ahead...

So, the other day I received a notice in the mail about... SUMMER CAMP!

Yep, the calendar still says January; it is freezing cold outside; and someone decided that I should start planning for summer activities. I guess in a way it makes sense, since I am thinking about escaping to somewhere warm... on-the-other-hand I still have CHRISTMAS presents that I have not given out yet!!

Is it me or are marketing/sales people trying to push us to plan ahead. I swear I see signs for back to school sales at the end of June; when kids are still in school (granted, I admit I do start doing a back to school countdown by July 1); and every year, Christmas stuff starts showing up in stores earlier and earlier. I think I see holiday decorations in Costco in August!

I understand the need to plan ahead, but I think this is getting a bit ridiculous.

For me, this constant reminder that I have to keep planning, or doing something, whether it is deciding on which summer camp to send my child, what halloween costume to make, or what Christmas gifts to buy makes me feel very anxious. I have enough trouble thinking about what to make for dinner tonight!

Sometimes I wonder whatever happened to just taking a breath, and living and enjoying the moment (hopefully that moment is quiet and I have a nice cup of coffee, or a glass of wine in my hand)?

So I say screw thinking about summer camp, for now; I can always do it next week...

How far do you start planning ahead for things (I am usually exceedingly happy and proud of myself if I book my kid into a camp a week before it starts...)?

Summertime blues…

When I was a kid, I LOVED summer vacation – no school; sleeping in; hanging out with friends; hanging out in front of the TV; being a lazy blob… what is there not to love?

And then I became a parent…

I now view summer vacation with a slight sense of dread. Don’t get me wrong, I love spending time with my kid, but I also love the couple of hours that I have to myself while she is in school.I need that time to run errands and to clean the house; okay, who am I kidding, I need those hours to watch useless crap on youtube.

Now, she is officially out of school. And, not only do I lose my Internet time; I feel I must find ways to entertain her. Unfortunately, this leads to my second problem… I am a bit of an obsessive planner and scheduler (I blame this on my father). I will plan when my daughter has time to breathe if I can. Also, I like things to run on MY time – if ‘fun’ time starts at 10:00, then it has to start at 10:00, not 9:59, and sure as hell not 10:01…

Now, my child usually will not follow a schedule (willingly), no matter how prettily colour coded I make it – the child does not feel the sense of urgency about anything; I am pretty sure the house can be on fire, and she will still insist on taking half an hour to put on her shoes herself. I, on the other hand, will start feeling anxious if I am slightly thrown off my carefully laid out plan. Not that either of these extremes is a good thing.

This brings us back to why I use to love summer… the potential to do nothing, and everything.So, this summer, I am going to try to take it easy with my little one and see what she wants to do and go from there. We do have a couple of weekend getaways in the early stages of planning, and she does have a couple of weeks of camps booked, but the rest of the summer is FREE!

So, here’s to sleeping in, playing at the park, digging in the sand, biking to nowhere, going on adventures, doing absolutely nothing, and especially the weeks when she is at camp so that I get my couple of hours back.