Summers can be a challenging time for Moms! Keeping kids active, not on their phone, keeping them fed. It doesn’t matter if you are a working mom or a stay-at-home mom, summers can be hard.

I asked my boys, now 19 and 21, what they liked most about summers. My youngest said, “I hated summers.”

Ouch. That hurt . “Tell me more,” I asked.

He replied, “You always made me get up. I had to work. You were in a bad mood.”

Okay, yes. I own that one.

I wasn’t exactly the ‘fun mom’ I wanted so desperately to be. I think that came from fear. I was so afraid of what could happen. Afraid of not being perfect. Afraid that I wasn’t getting this mothering thing right. 

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If I could somehow be magically swept back in time to those teenage summers, here are the things I would do differently.

Relax

Find ways to let go of the anxiety. For me, that is through counseling, meditation and prayer.

Ask for Help

That can be from family members, neighbors, babysitters. Get your help lined up. Ask for help!

Grace

Offer yourself more grace than you know is possible. You are not perfect. You won’t get everything right, but just showing up and being there for your kids, even in the most imperfect way, is the best gift you can give them.

So yeah, our summers weren’t the most jovial during those teen years. I didn’t exactly get the award for ‘Fun Mom’ I was hoping for. But my oldest is working for a vet in Auburn, getting his application ready for vet school, and entering into his senior year at Auburn this fall. Meanwhile my youngest is taking off to Colorado to work as a zip line guide before starting his sophomore year. I am grateful God gave them both the brains to finish this last semester with 4.0 GPAs. I’ll take that.

Maybe I didn’t have to be the “Fun Mom” after all.