Surviving Summer — share what’s working
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Anonymous
Woof is this real? Am I naive to hope this isn’t real? I don’t know any families remotely like this (I’m in Arlington). On the weekends are the parents at least around but they just like having the extra hands? Maybe I can see the very wealthy having that but man that is basically complete coverage of all waking time. |
Anonymous
| We go to the pool every afternoon now. We have a 2 hour reserved block. In the mornings I homeschool both kids. Ages 7 and 10. |
Anonymous
|
The hose.
We are an UMC family with video games, VR, pool membership, access to golf and tennis, etc. But the most attractive thing all summer has been the hose, storage bins, and old Tupperware. I am sure that my neighbors are not thrilled to see my kids acting like a bunch of hillbillies out on out front lawn, but whatever. Oh, and the other thing is chores. My kids have a boatload of chores now that they never used to have. But they need something constructive to do, and I need my house to not be trashed at the end of the day every day. Kids are 6, 8, 10, & 12. |
Anonymous
Would love to hear some of your craft ideas, PP. We have a garden that has been great also. Considering pop up patio... do you like yours? |
Anonymous
OP here. The pop up tent has been amazing, we are basically planning to leave it up all summer now. We just got it off amazon. I can work under it while the kids play and we’ve even stayed out while it’s raining. Crafts we have done: soap making (kit), painted rocks (just from the backyard), painted picture frames that we are sending to the gparents, pinwheels (kit), i have smithsonian kits to make a catapult and a bombard (figure they will be fun outside). Need to keep an eye on our recycling, i want to make these: https://www.printablesfairy.com/black-glue-bugs-suncatchers/ “Art walk” best when it’s not 1,000 degrees out - we each take a sketchpad or small notebook and a few pens, pencils, etc on a walk. The rule is we stop whenever someone wants to, and draw what we see. It was fun for me to only stop when the kids stopped, and try to do something in the attention span of my 5YO! I have some air dry clay that i want to do leaf/bark/grass imprints of, and then find a way to mount them on a backing so we can put them on the wall. I think we’llnhave enough to make/send christmas ornaments to everyone too. Forgot to mention we also got an actual camping tent for backyard camping. Depending on conditions etc i want to try some hipcamp spots in the fall. But the kids love chasing fireflies and sleeping outside! My kids are 5 and 9. |
Anonymous
I'm a NP, and I hope this isn't common, even among the wealthy, but I definitely know it happens. A friend was a nanny in DC and it was exactly like this for her-- only she didn't live in, so she was "only" there 8-6 M-F, but the family had a weekend nanny too. She estimated the parents spent about 1-2 waking hours Mon-Sat with the kids*, and would go on a 3-4-hour outing with them on Sundays, but with the nanny in tow. That was it. *Actually more like <1 hour on Fri/Sat d/t date nights. |
Anonymous
I don't see a reason to be judgey about these people. They do what works for them. The rest of us do what works for us. We don't know enough about this nanny's family. Maybe they're 2 doctors who work 80 hours a week at the hospital. Maybe they're lawyers that work similarly crazy hours. Maybe they're a rich trust fund couple that spends all their time socializing at the country club. Not our business and their nanny seems happy enough to have worked for them for 5 years... |