Had a SAHM. We left for the summer going to a vacation place my parents own. It was great when we were little kids, awful when we were teens.

Both my parents worked. Younger brother and I went to daycare til I turned 10. Then we both stayed at home. We would go to the pool, play with neighborhood kids, watch tv, etc. We didn’t get bored. Having the freedom to do whatever we wanted was way better than being at school.

SAH mom. Mostly played at home with my sister, went to the country club or local little beach, visited grandma, watched some tv, took classes in the local rec program or (dreaded) golf And tennis lessons at the club, reaD a lot. Begged to go to sleep away camp at 10, LOVED it and returned for a month or longer through early college, becoming a counselor.

It was kind of lonely and boring until camp. I’m jealous of my kids summers: great local swim team, spending most of the rest of the day with neighborhood kids outside Or at the pool, then family road trips with camping and visits to relatives. It’s very middle-class 1960s but so much better than my isolated upper middle class summers.

Loved the "boredom" of summers. Walked to/from the pool where an entire summer pass was about $25; read voraciously lying down and sweating on the living room sofa since we had no air conditioning. I wrote short stories, inspired by all the reading. Several of the neighborhood kids "disappeared" to their grandparents' house. Some went to day camp. Very few to sleep away camp. These were never more than 2 weeks long, though. We were all so ready for school to begin in September!

Thanks for this thread. I had amazing, happy, simple childhood summers. We had very little money and i never knew that until i looked back as an adult. I think i can still "smell" those hot hazy days in my back yard.

oh, and my mom was a SAH mom until about age 10, then i was a latch-key kid while she worked part-time as an office manager. I would tell mom all about the pool and the book i had read when she returned home around 4.

Both parents worked - I spent all my summers with grandparents.

Grew up in USSR in a blue-collar family. Each parent was allowed one month of vacation per year, so they each took one month of summer off, for third month I went to day camp at school (very basic, think day care). During those two months of my parents' vacation, we went to a tiny summer house owned by my grandparents, where we had a room for ourselves (it was very basic, with an outhouse and a bucket for showering, instead of real bathroom facilities).

Anonymous wrote:I’d like to hear the responses of people who didn’t have a sahm or a mother who was a teacher with summers off. Thanks!

No SAH or teacher parents, but we did have a nanny (glorified babysitter; she was only 11 years older than me, smoked cigarettes, and moonlighted as a strip club waitress). During the summers we hung out at the house or the mall, spent many days at the pool, ran errands with her, played outside or hung out with friends...normal kid stuff. My more troublesome sibling got shipped off to camp every summer for a month. Sometimes we went on vacations and/or trips to Florida to see the grandparents. We lived on a golf course and for several years I had a thriving business peddling 25-cent lemonade and all the used golf balls I'd hunt down in the woods and clean up and sell back to the golfers for 10 cents or 50 cents, depending on brand. I was also a voracious reader, so plenty of trips to the library and time spent reading and writing what would today be called fan fiction (ha!).

Anonymous wrote:I’d like to hear the responses of people who didn’t have a sahm or a mother who was a teacher with summers off. Thanks!

I'm in my 50s, and both my parents worked throughout my childhood. When I was under 8, mom hired a babysitter / house cleaner and I have very found memories of spending time with her. We probably ran out of money as I got older.

After third grade I stayed at home by myself during the summers. Watched TV, played outside with other kids from the neighborhood, loved reading. Mom sent me to as many vacation Bible schools as she could, back then, where we loved, there were not so many summer camps for working mothers to send their kids. Also went to red cross swimming lessons with a neighbor and her kids.

My grandmother would sometimes pick me up and I would spend the day with her, but she was also taking care of my cousins and could only handle.so many kids.

Some days I also went to work with my mom and did tasks I could do...file, alphabetize, staple, etc...

When I was older I would read quite a bit, make dinner, and "volunteer" more at my mom's workplace. We would usually go to the beach once for a couple of days and go visit relatives for a week for vacation. My good friend had a SAHM, so when we were older I would sometimes go to their house for sleepovers during the week.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've always had two working parents. Are there any specific questions that you'd like me to answer?

Were you just in camp all summer?

No we were not. I was in a special needs day camp for 3 years and then a 3 week overnight camp for special needs kids. We were fortunate to live near family and cousins we could walk to our grandmother's house. We had a "village" if you will, so an adult or teenage sibling was always around.

Vacation bible school, summer school, camp.

My parents worked.

In the mornings, we ate cereal and watched Bunch Bunch, Lassie, and I Dream of Jeanie reruns. During mid-day, we walked to the pool or explored the neighborhood.

In the afternoons, we watched Sally Jesse Raphael and Oprah.

Repeat.

Anonymous wrote:I've always had two working parents. Are there any specific questions that you'd like me to answer?

Were you just in camp all summer?

I've always had two working parents. Are there any specific questions that you'd like me to answer?

I’d like to hear the responses of people who didn’t have a sahm or a mother who was a teacher with summers off. Thanks!

I've no read a couple of threads on here about kids in the summer, but this is the first one that I have participated in. And I have to say that it's very interesting many people regail about how they spent their summers at and what they were doing, but then they go on to say how bored they were. Not all posters, but a few, it's funny because when they list what they did I can't help think I did all of the same things or at least most of them and was hardly ever bored. It also amuses me how kids/teens complain about being in school for 9 months and when summer finally comes they are all so bored! Kids I guess they complain no matter what.