Summertime Blues

It's a beautiful word, isn't it? I used to think that, too. Go ahead, say it: "Summer". It even feels beautiful, soft and sibilant, rolling off the tongue like a drop of water rolling off a leaf. It languishes on the lips for the briefest instant before evoking the images of long, lazy days spent relaxing in the shade; the smells of freshly turned earth, fragrant blossoms and cut grass wafting on a gentle breeze; the sound of a lawnmower in the distance, the hum of a fan and the somnolent buzz of a hundred unseen insects that soothes the soul.

Then I had children.

Now when I hear the word ‘summer', it's immediately followed by the word ‘vacation' and, when you put the two words together, they instantly bring to mind altogether different images. Long lazy days of relaxing become long, hot hours spent in the car driving one child to band, picking up another at the mall, hunting down the third when he didn't get home from the park on time and driving yet one more to and from a summer job. The fragrant aroma of the garden has been replaced with the smell of a slightly mildewed inflatable pool and the sickeningly sweet, cloying aroma of waterproof sunscreen. The somnolent buzz of the insects is drowned out by the insistent cries of my beloved children:

"Mommmm, he's doing it...again!"

"Mommmm, tell her it's my turn!"

"Mommmm, he's copying me!"

"Mommmm, she's breathing!"

And the perennial favorite - used season after season, year after year, generation after generation, a true classic that has steadfastly withstood the test of time; the one thing that children the world over not only agree on, but sing in unison like a mantra, striking terror into the heart of every parent:

"Mommmm, I'm bored!"

Oh sure. Everywhere you look there are suggestions for keeping our children entertained, but it exhausts me to even look at them...not to mention what it does to my bank account. Whatever happened to the old standbys? Things like cardboard boxes that become magic castles? They've probably been registered for trademark protection and distributed to Toys "R" Us. How about reading a good book aloud together? C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia is a classic. Five minutes into it though, and they're wondering if The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is out as a video game release and whether it's supported by Playstation or Nintendo. Whatever happened to afternoons spent with the wind in their hair, riding bicycles through open fields and playing baseball in vacant lots? Oh, yes. Those pastimes aren't powered by electricity and they don't beep or require batteries.

How did this happen?

I say we revolt. Parents everywhere, pick up your courage - and your earplugs - and revolt. Show the kids the beauty of staring up at the sky looking for shapes in the clouds, whether they like it or not. Immerse them in the crisp aroma of fresh cut grass; the best place for that, of course, being directly behind the lawnmower. Introduce them to the calming effects of a silence broken only by the buzz of a bee or the song of a cricket; sitting in a sunny garden - perhaps pulling a weed or two - is an ideal spot to accomplish that goal. Show them how wonderful summertime really can be and, in the process, take back the dream. Take back the summers of years past and enjoy once more. The kids will thank you for it.

And, if they resist, there's always cleaning their rooms.