Summer Boredom

Well, its mid-summer. The kids are bored. Big surprise.

Swimming pool, trampoline, bikes, scooters and the simple joys of the outdoors aren't enough to keep them entertained.

"I'm bored! There is NOTHING to do!", (pick a child) says.

Granted, I've been working quite a bit this summer. I'm not their entertainer, but things are a little more limited when I'm not home.

And lets face it, things are different than they were 20 years ago. Well, lets see, I mean 30 years ago. Is THAT how long its been since I was a kid? Wow.

My own Mom was a SAHM (the acronym now used for stay-at-home-mom). You know the story..."us kids were out the door in the morning and came in after dark..." Kids galore in the neighborhood.

We didn't have five television sets (only one), satelite tv (cable came later on in my teens?), multiple portable electronic game players (we had Atari, or in John's case, ColecoVision, the stay plugged into the tv kind), iPods, a COMPUTER (wow, would've that have been fun!) (I had a typewriter that kept me busy as a young pre-teen), ect. We did always have a trampoline, which provided hours and hours of entertainment. We jumped from the trampoline onto the top of the garage and back, time after time. The sprinkler went under it on hot summer days. It was a blast!

But back to the kids galore. Neighborhoods were just different. Seems there were several kids your age to match up with on any given day. Boy or girl. Slip-n-slide, clubhouses, swingsets and riding bikes. Always something to do with someone. Traci, Debby and I would play with the old-fashioned tape recorder and act like we were news reporters or singers. Oh how I would love to get my hands on those tapes.

In our neighborhood, Matt doesn't "hang" with anyone. He has to ride his bike a few miles away to meet one of his good friends and a good 20 minute drive to hook up with the other. Both of those being his closest two friends. Everyone else is a drive away as well. Rachel has three girls in the neighborhood. They go in spurts. A few days will go by with no one getting together and making plans. Why? I have no idea. Alec has two kids. He stays pretty active with either one or both, depending on whose home.

But all in all, the three spend a lot of time indoors, either planted in front of the tv or computer. Rotating between the two, with an occasional trip to the pantry or refrigerator.

What a waste of summer. Six more weeks left to enjoy sleeping in and being lazy. Way too long with their dull schedules.

I bought some math and language arts workbooks for Alec to work on this summer, to keep his mind fairly sharpened. Its hard enough to get that kid to brush his teeth everyday, let alone keep his mind focused on learning.

Matt is at a stand still on his truck. He is at the point of painting and needs to go and pick up the paint that he and John ordered. John and I are running to and fro, between work, laundry, suppers, fixing our a/c (John on Sunday), fixing the highly rutted driveway from the rivers flowing down it after every huge rainfall (also on Sunday), fixing anything else that needs immediate attention, pool maintenance, grocery shopping, church, camping and open houses, there hasn't seemed to be any spare time for his truck. That has played a huge part in his boredom. Plus the fact that he has put in applications all over with no luck on landing a job.

Sixteen + no job + no wheels = bummer deal.

Child # 1, aka Josh, doesn't have time to be bored. Working 5 1/2 day a week, taking long bike rides (which he loves), church and last but certainly not least, Miss Krista. No crying out in boredom there. He probably wishes he could be bored.

Such is life.

I'm sure a lot of other mothers are hearing the b-o-r-e-d word by now.