Mom of 3 POV: Summer Is the WORST

It’s 9:28 a.m. and we haven’t even made it out the door. 

There have been 12 meltdowns (the kids), four arguments (my husband and I), and one unsolved mystery: where is the sunscreen? I’ve checked the beach bag, the junk drawer and the stroller pocket I haven’t cleaned out since January. No idea. I did, however, remember the chairs, the towels, the cooler, the beach toys, the wet wipes and the eight different types of snacks we apparently need in order to survive a two-hour beach outing. I eventually find a crusty bottle of sunscreen in the glove compartment that may or may not be expired.

Admittedly, things improve once we actually get to the beach, but only for about three minutes until someone has to pee. So it’s off to the public restroom that’s swarming with flies, has no toilet paper and a broken lock. My toddler cries because the sand is too hot and the water is too cold, my 5-year-old is upset that I forgot his goggles and I’m pretty sure the baby put a cigarette butt in his mouth. By the end of the day, everyone is sweaty, cranky and coated in sand that will live in our car for weeks.

Maybe I’m just not a beach person. Or maybe I’m just not a summer person.

It’s not just the heat that I don’t like. It’s the lack of routine. My kids need structure, even if they complain about it. And summer is…chaos. No one knows what day it is. Nutrition goes out the window and mealtimes are just one snack after another. Bedtime is delayed even though we’ve been home for hours.

And don’t get me started on the camps costing approximately one million dollars (that’s with the early registration discount, btw) and yet only going until 3 p.m.

Did I mention the sunscreen? Every day turns into a wrestling match as I attempt to get SPF on squirming limbs and inevitably smear some in somebody’s eye and stain my clothes.

Last weekend in the 90 degree heat, I decided I was going to be a fun mom,so I took the kids to get ice cream. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who had the same idea because we waited in line (outside!) for 20 minutes which is when I foolishly promised the kids they could have a cone instead of a cup as a reward for their patience. You know what’s not fun? Having to call your husband to come pick you up outside the ice cream place after two cones have dropped and everybody is covered in mint chocolate chip.

But at least the kids can play outside, you say! Sure, when they’re not demanding snacks or more water for the reusable water balloons every five minutes. Speaking of water, I’m pretty sure our water table has become a breeding ground for mosquitos and I’m actually a little scared to see what’s floating inside it.

The truth is that summer is magical—for kids. For moms? It's exhausting. I’m still cooking, cleaning, parenting and planning. Only now I’m also being asked 28 times a day, “What are we doing today?” while navigating unpredictable schedules and heat advisories.

And yet…summer memories will be made. And it won’t be the bug bites or the never-ending piles of towels or the tantrums over melted ice cream. It’s the squeals when they hit the splash pad. The way my baby digs his toes into the sand. The crab we found on the beach and named Crabbie. The fact that, for better or worse, we’re together.

So yeah, I won’t go so far as to say summer is magical. But I know that once school starts up again, I’ll probably miss it. (The sunscreen battles? Not so much.)

The cool thing about having multiple kids is that each one comes with their own unique personality. The flip side of that, however, is that they also come with wildly different food preferences which makes finding a dinner that everyone will actually eat tricky. Lately, my strategy is to pick a theme—like taco night or a Mediterranean spread—and lay everything out in bowls so they can DIY their plates. Tonight it was bowls of cucumbers, tomatoes, couscous, lamb meatballs and hummus. More dishes, sure. But also less whining and more eating. Totally worth it.