Summer is full of unfulfilled promises we made to ourselves during the spring about what we would do once the weather turned warmer. If you’re anything like us, you didn’t hold yourself to your promises this summer. Still, we had fun not doing much at all and not meeting our goals. Here’s where we fell short:
Not diving into potty training
I know little, if anything, about potty training. But I have heard about a method involving letting kids run around naked. I swore I’d try this approach to potty training this summer. After all, it’s easier to let your toddler run around in the nude during the warmer months of the year. Alas, we did not take advantage of this brief reprieve from the Boston cold to potty train our child naked. Now, almost three months after summer started, our son is still in diapers and could not care less about the potty. Those racecar undies we’ve tried to tempt our son with are nowhere in sight.
Avoiding swim lessons
I’ve taken my son to swim lessons during the winter months, and it is not easy. Which is why I stopped. You have to bundle up at home, unbundle at the pool, change into swim gear while herding a wandering child, and pretend it’s really fun to force water into your child’s nose and mouth. I was looking forward to continuing lessons in the summer, when changing in and out of swimsuits requires fewer clothes and less effort. Instead of procuring structured lessons, we chose to let our son romp in the ocean waves and kick his feet in pools while using our arms as floaties. We hoped keeping him in the water was just as good as paying someone to teach him how to swim. We are currently looking into fall swim lessons.
Spending time inside
As far as I’m concerned, if you live in a wintery state, you better take advantage of hot temperatures by spending as much time outdoors as possible. Why not wake up, go outside, and not come home until it’s dark? We achieved far less outdoor time than the long stretch between sunrise and sunset. If my son is content to play indoors with his cars, I let him do that, no matter the time of year. It isn’t worth pushing him into a transition to go outdoors in the summer when he is perfectly happy indoors. Remind me a few months from now when there are many inches of snow on my side porch that I let the sunshine land on this empty play space in vain.
Neglecting New England beaches
I think we visited exactly two beaches this year. One of these beaches we only visited once. We are creatures of habit and go to the same beach every weekend of every summer. And while it’s my all-time favorite sandy retreat, we leave much of the New England shoreline behind. I’m sorry we missed you, coastal northeast.
Summer is just too short to get it all done. So we didn’t. And that was great for us.
There’s something so lovely about getting lost in a slower pace as time passes you by. I thoroughly enjoyed my summer — changing my toddler in and out of swim diapers, not educating him on swim safety, letting him play indoors when he felt like it, and returning to the same beach every weekend instead of exploring new spaces. It may not have been action-packed or eventful, but we love wasting time.
