The house feels weirdly empty this week. The 12-year-old is staying with cousins for the week, and the 14-year-old departed yesterday for his technology competition. That leaves only three children at home! Last night at dinner I was calling for people and most were, in fact, in the room, it just didn’t feel like it.
We will have a few more weeks this summer where various combinations of kids won’t be around and it will be interesting to see the dynamics.
Of course, having different combinations of kids in the house means the background logistics change too. Which brings me to today’s post.
Due to various combinations of kids being off doing other things this weekend, I will be with the 9-year-old, solo, for much of the day on Saturday. He doesn’t need constant supervision, or really much supervision at all, but he can’t stay home by himself yet. Usually there is at least one older kid at home at night or on the weekend so if I want to run to the grocery store or go for a run when I’ve got other coverage for the 4-year-old (like, the 4-year-old goes to his Saturday sitter’s house) then it’s all good. I was thinking through my Saturday plans and then I realized that I would be responsible for a 9-year-old all day so I needed to shift things around.
The little angel on my shoulder was like “hey, mommy day opportunity!” So I asked him what he wanted to do and the answer was…not much. Honestly, I get it. He’s in camp all day every day. We spent all last weekend in the car. So even if it is on offer to go to an amusement park or science museum he was thinking more low key. We may also wind up going to the beach or something next week given that my husband and I will be off the 3rd-5th.
I’m sure if I spent a lot of time brainstorming all the possibilities within 90 minutes of us I could come up with something he’d be enthusiastic about. But I’m also thinking…eh. We don’t have to do anything. I think we will make a farmer’s market visit (donuts/bakery items are on offer as a bribe) and we might stop by the craft store to pick up something for a project. But other than that we might just hang out at the house, and go in the pool, and he can play video games while I do a few hours of work (see the “off the 3rd-5th bit”). It will be fine.
Totally agree!! I feel like sometimes the general “narrative” is that we always have to be doing things with our kids or taking them places, etc. But I swear, some of my absolute best and most favorite childhood memories from summer are just the ones where my dad was working on a project in the garage with a baseball game on the radio (I can still smell the sawdust…) and my mom was ironing (seemed she did a lot more ironing than I do today, lol!) and the windows were open and my sister and I were just playing around in the yard or in the basement and occasionally grabbing a popsicle from the freezer or making some microwave popcorn. 🙂
@Grateful Kae – he will definitely not have any memories of me ironing! I’m sure the day will be fun, whatever we do…
Having special time together is enough for most kids, no need to plan something elaborate. Enjoy!
@omdg – I am sure we will have a good day. Or at least I hope so!
I actually think we once had a mommy day where the “activities” were just what you described – get a treat, grab something at a store, then come home and chill (we might have baked but nothing crazy). It was great 🙂 My kids don’t love rides that much so honestly BOTH of us probably prefer that to an amusement park!
@SHU- yeah, my energy for rallying for something he’s not over-the-top enthusiastic about and that I have to plan is minimal…
Of my 4 kids, only my 14yr old is home this week and I don’t think he quite knows what to do with himself. He loves food so I have been taking him to lunch. I think it has been good for him to figure out what to do on his own. I hadn’t realized how rare that is for him.
My kids also love to have a down weekend- especially now that they are older. With school, homework, jobs, extracurriculars, camps, etc they aren’t home all that much. I offered to take a quick trip over the 4th weekend but no one was all that enthusiastic so we are staying home.
@Jessica – hey, if no one is enthusiastic, no reason to push it. I’m sure you’d have fun if you went…but will also have fun at home too.