THIS IS US
For Better or Worse Another Summer Slips and Slides Away
On letting go and getting by
If you’re a parent who spends a lot of time online, it’s hard to escape the meme about making the most of the 18 summers you have with your children before they leave home. It crops up every year when the weather turns unbearably hot and school winds down. Like most parenting memes that encourage parents to cherish the moment, I find this one to be annoying at best and downright harmful at worst.
The grind of parenting is hard enough, particularly when the kids are home even more, without the added pressure of trying to discover some sort of magic elixir that will freeze time, or parent so perfectly that some imaginary version of your future self will look back contentedly and say, “yes, we really nailed that — could not have been better!”
The truth I’ve discovered in almost eleven years of parenting is that I’m not going to remember what we did day-to-day next year, let alone twenty years from now. So, to the best of my ability, I try to let go of any illusion that I might be able to create the perfect summer experience if I just try hard enough.
We live in a time when much of the world seems to be fraying in front of our eyes. Disease, war, climate change, gun violence, the…
