The kids I know who have unscheduled summers fall into one or the other category:

1. Good SAHM or nanny who keeps them engaged mentally and physically without too much structure. For example, pool or outing in the morning followed by downtime in the afternoon (books/solo play or play date, minimal screens).

2. Parent who “works” from home and basically the whole day is screentime, with maybe intermittent play dates, but even during those play dates it’s screen time

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You cannot recreate an 80s summer. Kids all have screens. Even if yours don’t, the rest do. It just isn’t the same.

You can arrange activities with no screens. Have your teen invite a couple kids to the mall but they have to leave their phones in the car. Same with going to a pool or lake.

I have a feeling you won’t be very popular if you do that. BTDT

I never attended camp. Both my parents worked but my grandma was around. However, she was in her 70s and 80s and we were pretty much free to roam around.

I spent a lot of time reading books, heading to my friend's houses for board games, arts and crafts, and their pool, and playing outdoors.

I watched a lot of TV, took out a lot of library books, and got shipped off to various relatives’ houses to clean for them or be a mother’s helper. My kids go to a camp they really love and I wish I’d been able to go to!

I had to go to in home daycare at some lady’s house. It was fine but as soon as I was old enough I stayed home alone and mostly watched the price is right and soaps all day. I didn’t mind. I’m a contributing member of society now.

Anonymous wrote:OP here- agree with all the comments about keeping a balance and kids cant not be doing anything all summer for 10-12 weeks. Do you feel the kids in the 80’s or prescreen times were more creative? With my boys 13 and 11, they are not addicted to screens as such but it's the first thing they can think of when they are bored. It's too hot to play outside these days, maybe 50 years ago it was cooler?

It was very hot back then. I grew up in the midwest, but only rich people had AC and we were not rich and also didn't have modern enough wiring for a window unit. I remember getting so dehydrated that I passed out or had a really upset stomach, but we didn't really know about that then so it was chalked up to me being fragile (I was quite sturdy).

In some ways it was more creative. At the pool, we spent a lot of downtime making friendship bracelets and playing cards and even making up new card games, or dances, or cheers. But the downtime also led to creativity in relationships- summers at the pool were a swirl of gossip, rumors, speculation, meanness and manipulation way earlier than what my DD experienced now, probably because we had nothing else to do. For example, I remember a group of girls I thought were my friends grabbing my hand in the diving board line and making me touch teenage boys' bottoms and then running away. That kind of stuff was constant.

In the neighborhood, you could argue that we were very creative with our play. But creative=dangerous. We were forever digging holes under playhouses to build basements (and then they would collapse or be so deep that they'd fill with water), launching things we built with wheels off ramps or pulling them with bikes (I have the stitches and concussion to show for that), or playing in the woods and encountering something creepy or off, like an intentionally skinned dead animal or a scary farmer with a gun trained on us.

This was my son’s childhood (not just summer) for the most part. I don’t have the money for activities and camps. I’m a teacher so I did take my son to the one camp I worked at because it was free for me. He did do rec sports for a few years but nothing else. He loved his summers. No phone until he was 13 and then summer jobs starting at 15.

Anonymous wrote:You cannot recreate an 80s summer. Kids all have screens. Even if yours don’t, the rest do. It just isn’t the same.

You can arrange activities with no screens. Have your teen invite a couple kids to the mall but they have to leave their phones in the car. Same with going to a pool or lake.

Anonymous wrote:OP here- agree with all the comments about keeping a balance and kids cant not be doing anything all summer for 10-12 weeks. Do you feel the kids in the 80’s or prescreen times were more creative? With my boys 13 and 11, they are not addicted to screens as such but its the first thing they can think of when they are bored. Its too hot to play outside these days, maybe 50 years ago it was cooler?

I know I tolerated 90 degree heat a lot easier than I do as an adult. We had a house with no air conditioning oth three floors and the top bedrooms were the hottest. My college dorm had no AC, my first few apartments had no AC. No AC in my cheap car in the 90s.

We had day camps outside with arts and crafts and sports. We were outside a lot back then.

I think summers are usually long enough for a little of everything. However, I will try to give my kid/teens a bit if the 80s and 90s summers that I had. True, things are different, but i can try.

We found that scaling back on activities during the summer really improves their overall mental health and performance during the school year. The downtime helps. Now, we don't let them be 100% lazy. They are still required to do physical activities daily and read daily. The one who takes piano lessons maintains that and the other that has a language tutor does that as well in the summer.

But a few years ago we stopped with the nonstop summer scheduling and it made such a big difference.

Anonymous wrote:I was alive in the 1980's and went to 8 weeks of camp every summer from 3.5 to 13.5.

I can't relate to the people who talk about no seatbelts, riding their bikes wherever all day, etc. I was allowed two houses to the left of ours and two to the right, for 15 minute increments maybe two times a day. I've never ridden in a car without a seatbelt and can distinctly recall my carseat.

I was born in 1967, and have never ridden in a car without a seatbelt. Car seat until about 5/6 yrs of age. No idea where this no seatbelt nonsense comes from, except that many many people had stupid parents apparently. I'm sure my infant car seat in 1967 was relatively worthless all things considered, but probably better than nothing.

As for summer. My mother was a SAHM. We went to the club pool, I rode during the summers a ton. Pony club camp that someone had to drive us to and from as it was far. Riding bikes in the streets was a thing. Prior to getting heavily into riding, I do remember being bored out of my mind quite often though. Three channels on the TV and my mother had a strict "no soap operas" rule--that was about all that was on. Camp was sports camps, tennis camp maybe 2-3 hrs a day for a week or two. Nothing like the all day or multi sport camps my kids went to. (Kids are now counselors and in college so not attending them).

I am pretty thankful not to have had to deal with screens/internet/social media as I think that does make growing up now much more stressful. That's about all I'm nostalgic about though.

You cannot recreate an 80s summer. Kids all have screens. Even if yours don’t, the rest do. It just isn’t the same.

80s teen here, both parents worked but could not afford summer camp. So we were stuck with a lot of bad TV, a 2 mile walk to the county pool or the library. In elementary and middle school I envied the kids who went off to camp. I felt that they had parents who cared enough about them to give them edifying experiences. As soon as I was working age, I got a job to stay busy.
Those summers stuck at home sucked.

I was alive in the 1980's and went to 8 weeks of camp every summer from 3.5 to 13.5.

I can't relate to the people who talk about no seatbelts, riding their bikes wherever all day, etc. I was allowed two houses to the left of ours and two to the right, for 15 minute increments maybe two times a day. I've never ridden in a car without a seatbelt and can distinctly recall my carseat.