It’s summer time! Kids are out of school. They are excited about being able to sleep in, play video games all day, watch more TV and maybe go outside to play. Parents are scrambling to figure out what to do with these children that don’t have “free” child care [a.k.a. school].

Having PJ out of school now,  I keep wondering if summers are like they were back when I was a kid in 1980? This was back when you could leave your kids at home and have the oldest sibling, in my case an 8 year old sister, watched over me & the house while mom was off working at K-mart. Trying to think back to a childhood summer some 29 years ago has been very hard [my head still hurts]. It was so hard to remember what I did during that summer, that I had to call my mom and ask. I got my answer plus a bit more then I expected.

During the summer of 1980, I was sent to Vancouver, Canada for about two months to stay with my grandmother Mary Beaver. The  details of my stay with my grandmother are foggy, but from what I can remember we visited lots of family, ate lots of takeout Chinese food and mostly hung out in her apartment [I can't remember if it was that trip or another one when I jumped from her 2nd story balcony to the ground below. Either way I must have been pretty damn bored].

To end my summer trip at my grandmother’s home my [divorced] parents drove me and my sister from Vancouver to Los Angeles in a orange 1976 Volkswagen Beetle. To top that, the beetle’s front cargo trunk was filled with ice and steelhead salmon after we stopped at Burnt Ranch in Northern California for a few days of fishing on the Trinity River.

So, how do my life adventures play in to PJ’s life as a 7 year old enjoying the fruits of summer vacation? First thing, definitely no border crossing with anything that might be mistaken as an illegal substance. The other big difference is we don’t feel the need to ship PJ &/or MJ off to their grandparents house in Utah, as my mom put it, “to get a break” [Renae might think differently by the end of summer]. Plus the last time PJ was sent to visit her grandparents in Utah a week ahead of Renae & I, she barely made it 3 days before she was home sick [ok, Mommy sick].

I think the days of shipping your kids off to the grandparents for a month or two are pretty much over. It might happen more when the kids are older. But with people waiting longer to have kids, grandparents these days don’t have as much pep in their step to be dragged all around by kids 5 to 10 years old.

The other big difference my daughters have from my childhood summer activities, is choice. I know I didn’t have a say if I was headed to Canada, Los Angeles, Oregon or wherever when summer rolled around. If the decision was made, my lil tan behind was headed to that destination. With PJ we usually give her the option to do 2 or 3 major activities/camps each summer. Living in San Diego provides a world of options for kid’s activities during the summer break. There are so many options that it’s hard to choose what camp/activity to sign a kid up for.  And now that PJ is 7, that list has doubled.

In years past PJ has gone to camps at Sea World, a wild life rescue, a performing arts studio in Balboa Park, the YMCA & more. This year we were trying to keep is simple. We had planned a soccer camp [which she has started], surf camp and then left it open for one other option. But now PJ remembered something we mentioned in years past. We told her that when she was 7 that should could attend a horse camp. We were all good with it until the price for the camp rared its ugly head. Then we had to go back to the lil boss with a new budget proposal for her summer activities. We layed out the options for PJ; 2 more camps or horse camp. You can only guess what she picked. But it was a good situation to allow her to fully choose what she wanted to do. I have no doubt that she will love it [I also have no doubt that our credit card company will love it also ].

I think it is beneficial to a kids personal growth to allow them to choose their own paths. It does somewhat relieve you, the parent, of setting them up with crap activities that they didn’t want to do and giving them an open door to hate you for next 20 years. Besides that, choice is good. If you have the means to give your kids a choice of what to do during the summer besides sitting on the couch watching TV, then do it. If you don’t have the financial means, there are many program available to help pay for summer activities. An example is the YMCA and Boys and Girls Club. Their summer programs usually rock and they offer many options to those that don’t have the financial means.

Our world is full of options. Let’s start making sure that we are giving out kids enough opportunities to experience these options. I loved many of the summer activities my parents setup for me as a child and I am trying to do the same for my kids in today society while empowering them to be their own lil person.

- ken

1. surfing lessons Says:
   October 27th, 2010 at 4:53 pm

   Thanks for the cool blog – Hey I added your post to my myspace page.

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