Celebrating Women...for the Real World
Thursday, June 16, 2005 Kids and Summertime-The Perils of Kids With Working Parents

If I hear "I'm bored" one more time, I may just lose what little gray matter remains in my head!

My kids have now been out of school for three weeks. My oldest is in summer school (he, he) and, all of his friends are now driving. So, he seems to keep himself occupied. He will be even more occupied when he finds himself a job (double he, he).

On the other hand, my daughter who is about to turn 15 is in a different boat. Her two best friends (they were sisters) moved to California last week. Up until that time I rarely saw her. Now that they're gone, she's completely bored! When I was growing up, I lived in a small town and most of the kids I went to school with were within walking or bike riding distance. Unfortunately, that's not the case for my daughter. Her friends don't live in our neighborhood. None of her friends are driving yet, so that's not an option. I work, so I can't take her places. That pretty much leaves sleeping, the computer and TV. She has a room full of crafts, books, sewing stuff, etc. As I run through the list of suggestions, she gives me the same response each time "that's boring". I asked her what she would like to do that wouldn't be boring. Guess what, each item required either transportation or money.

My youngest son is completely opposite. Give him his Playstation II, his games and TV, maybe some food, and he's good to go. My daughter asks him to go and do stuff with her, but he is of the variety that is very content to stay inside where it's cool.

When the weekend rolls around, they are all looking at me for transportation and entertainment. We all know that, as a working mother, weekends are the only time that I have to try to clean, pay bills, work in the yard, go to the grocery store, etc., etc. Again, they face disappointment.

What did we do when we were teenagers during summer break? Did we count on our parents for entertainment? Are our kids so spoiled that, what we would have considered to be cool is now mundane?

Posted by Sheri & SuZan :: 2:37 PM :: 2 comments

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