Anonymous wrote:To the immediate PP, this sounds lovely. Where is the second home?

Litchfield County, CT. We live in NYC.

To the immediate PP, this sounds lovely. Where is the second home?

We have a second home not on the beach and spend most of the summer there. The kids go to camp, play tennis at the club and swim at the pool (at our house) and the lake beaches. We love it and have made a great community of friends around our second home. Since ours is in a place we can enjoy all 4 seasons we go there all year and enjoy hiking, apple picking, skiing and tubing, etc.
it’s been a wonderful thing for our family and we’ve been doing this since our kids were 0, 2 & 4, they are now 8, 10 & 12.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i guess your kids don't play any summer sports? odd

Not odd at all. Kids need a break from organized sports. We shut it down during the summer.

Agree completely

It doesn’t sound fun to me, because I like my friends and routine at home. I like the beach, but for a week as a family vacation, not on my own while dh works. You’d have to want this to make it work.

Every summer our family left to go to our summer house when school got out and didn't return until after Labor Day. I knew no one there. I did get signed up for activities there with kids my own age, it just didn't turn into local friends. Starting in late elementary school thru HS, I had friends from home come and stay. Stay for a week or two. I had a cousin who would stay for several. Difference was this area was my Mom's home. Op, I think you give it a try, for a few years. You wouldn't need for it to be forever.

What area are you looking for a house in?

Anonymous wrote:i guess your kids don't play any summer sports? odd

It is not longer odd that kids don't play sports. And summer season's have never been a big thing, because people go on vacations.

My kid plays golf and tennis in the summer. We do that near beach house.

Anonymous wrote:i guess your kids don't play any summer sports? odd

I don't know anyone whose children play summer sports unless you are talking about swim club, and even that is a very small group. What summer sports do your kids play?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you are not part of the beach crowd. If we have to explain to you how to enjoy it, just give it up.

This is OP. Hahahah…I could fill ALL the days at the beach. I get it. I am a beach person. Coffee on the porch. Reading. Sunsets. It’s my jam. It’s my kids and entertaining them that I’m worried about. I tend to be an over scheduler and cruise director type mom because I’m scared of them being bored.

This is AWFUL. They *should* be bored. That's where the best creative play comes from. Wow.

Idea sounds lovely to me. Pick the town very carefully though. Do you want families nearby? Will you be surrounded by renters? Party houses? Do you want a restaurant scene?

Why not just rent for 3 months next summer and try it out? Honestly, i think more people who want to spend just summers away should rent. It's a hassle to take care of another home and I'm not convinced that it's a great investment with climate change here already.

We do this. Have a club membership (actually built into to HOA dues).

Do you have any specific questions?

My kids are older and we have thought about doing this but we would both work from the beach (in our case the Cape) and sign our kids up for a local day camp. Our kids don't do summer swim - but they do go to sleepaway camp so in our case it would be for more like 6 weeks.

My husband spent his summers going to a beach town where the community center had camp in the mornings and then would go to the beach in the afternoon. It sounds like a dreamy summer to me.