When I was growing up, my mom stayed home with my siblings and me. Usually, my childhood summer days were very unstructured. An average July day in the ’90s for 8-year-old me likely included a friend knocking on my door in the morning, maybe someone’s mom taking the group to the park district pool, and hanging around outside with the other neighborhood kids for hours. At some point, we’d all be eating popsicles. The time between the end of school in June and the first day of class in August felt endless.
Fast-forward to today, and my 8-year-old daughter doesn’t have the same types of unstructured summers. Her dad and I both work full-time, so she goes to a school-age summer camp at the childcare center my toddler attends. She’s certainly not having a boring time while at camp. They go on a field trip almost every day, so she’ll be spending her days at the zoo, bowling alley, roller rink, movie theater, trampoline park, pool, and more. She will have fun, but she won’t have the same lazy, carefree ‘90s summer that I remember so fondly. For fellow working parents looking to capture some of that nostalgic summer magic, keep reading.
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The ‘90s summer controversy
When it comes to childhood nostalgia, the ‘90s have taken over—especially when it comes to summertime memories. However, this year, parents seem to be pushing back in different ways, creating some discourse over the ‘90s summer nostalgia.
’90s summer wasn’t all ice cream trucks and water balloons
On one hand, adults who had working parents in the ‘90s point out some of the not-so-magical realities of summer—long stretches of TV time watching soap operas and talk shows, chore lists, and boredom. “What a lot of people don’t remember is that no, the parents were not around, and since…my parents had to work, I remember spending the summer when I was 11 + 12 at home alone, mostly bored out of my mind watching tv for the majority,” shared @Kademian in a comment on The Everymom’s Instagram.
In a viral Thread, user @gracie_ooo posed the question, “Millennial parents trying to recreate a ’90’s kid summer, but planning the days…down to hourly increments. Respectfully, were y’all there?” Her post received thousands of likes and hundreds of comments from people chiming in about what their ’90s summers actually looked like.
Working parents need summer childcare
Another pushback? Households with two working parents or single parents don’t have the luxury of an unstructured summer. They need summer childcare, just like my husband and I do.
A working parents’ guide to make summer special
Even though summers will have to look a little different for my kids, I still want to recapture some of what I loved about the relaxed and mellow vibes from my childhood summers. Here are some easy (and realistic) ways to make summer special as a working parent:
Spend as much time outside as possible
Take every opportunity to do an activity outdoors. Bring your dinner to the patio, set your weekend lunch out on a picnic blanket, and hop on your bikes whenever there is a chance. Also, being outside provides more opportunities for organic neighborhood fun to happen with the other kids around, like playing in the backyard with water toys, coloring chalk murals, and catching fireflies. Giving your kids opportunities to explore and time to be spontaneous captures that summer magic.
Give age-appropriate amounts of freedom
Like my parents did when I was a kid, as my daughter gets older, I’m giving her more freedom to be on her own with friends, with clear boundaries and rules about where she can be and when she needs to be home. We’re taking the time to have discussions on summer safety hazards and communicate just how important these rules are to continue to have more responsibility. Personally, I’m OK with her going to friends’ houses along the street and around the block, but I think we have several more years until I’d be comfortable with an unsupervised pool or beach activity—that requires many more conversations about water safety.
Relax your routine
Allow yourself to take a break from the usual busyness of evening sports and activities for a bit. This allows time for more of that organic neighborhood fun to happen and also leaves your nights open for fun summer activities like an outdoor concert, baseball game, farmer’s market, or local fair.
Also, if your work schedule allows for some flexibility, take advantage. I work from home, and one of the reasons we usually get a start early in the morning is that the elementary school day starts before 8 a.m. But during the summer, we can forget about those extra early mornings for a while. When my daughter is at day camp, she just needs to be there before the field trips start around 9:30 a.m. So, we take the opportunity during these months to stay up a little later and sleep in a little more.
Use PTO to have an unstructured day
If you can swing it, take a day or two off work and keep your kids home from their summer care. Resist the urge to fill the whole day with plans ahead of time—instead, sleep in until everyone naturally wakes up and let the morning unfold. Have a long, slow, low-maintenance day. Maybe the ice cream truck comes by, maybe a neighborhood driveway party starts, or maybe everyone ends up at the park or splash pad. You can also take a spontaneous trip to the movie theater with a bucket of popcorn or spend a calm afternoon at the library with a stack of books.
These types of days won’t happen all the time, but I still strive to make at least a little part of each day fun. Even 15 minutes of focused time on an activity in the evenings is enough to make summer memories.
Looking for even more mom advice and camaraderie on this topic? Check out our Everymom Group Chat YouTube episode below where four moms chat about the end-of-school mayhem and summer planning panic as working parents!
Brigette Marshall, Contributing Writer
Brigette is a mom of two little girls and works full-time in project management, both at home and in the office. She loves book clubbing, antique shopping, watching documentaries, and convincing her husband to cook gourmet meals for her.
Kathy Sisson, Senior Editor
Kathy Sisson has been a key contributor in the editorial parenting space for nearly a decade, not only as a full-time editor at The Everymom but previously as a freelance writer for top parenting sites, including Scary Mommy, Motherly, Parent Co., and more. As an editor at The Everymom, she has produced hundreds of articles on a range of parenting topics, reviewed dozens of family-focused products, interviewed leading experts in the children and parenting world, and created viral parenting social media content. A mom of two, she is committed to sharing the honest, helpful, and often humorous stories of motherhood.
