Summers are supposed to be less hectic. Right?
Parenting never stops. In fact, it gets harder during the summer. And more expensive. Much more expensive.
For most of us, school is free. At least once you get past daycare and aren’t yet dealing with college! Elementary school and middle school and high school are free (and if you can afford to send your kids to private schools for all or any of those years, then the word “expensive” probably doesn’t apply). Camp? Vacation? Those things are not free.
But they are less expensive than being at home with you kids for the better part of three months! (Or just over two months here in the northeast, where kids get screwed with a late June end-of-school date and an early September back-to-school date.) And I don’t just mean because of all the e-book purchases and video game add-ons and demands for pizza and trips to the movies, though all of those things add up.
But I’m not just talking about financial costs, I’m also talking about metaphorical costs. Specifically about all the time this takes up. Parenting never takes a breather, and that means we never do either.
I’ve written about the challenges of filling their time, the challenge today is finding time for ourselves! Because so far, almost a month into my kids’ time off, Mom and Buried have hardly had any time to relax. And it’s our summer too! Right?
Not only are we - tbh, mostly she - forced to fill our kids’ time, there is a ton of dead time that comes along with that. We have to get them to camp, and to their playdates, and to the park and museums and etc., etc., etc. And when you live in the city and take the subway, you can’t just account for the actual activities, you need to factor in the commuting.
Between all of that and my busy day job and the plethora of poorly timed doctors’ appointments and errands and housecleaning and vacation planning and everything else, the last month has sped by in a blur of obligations and annoyances. Even visits to Grandma and Pop-pop’s house in the burbs, to spend time with the cousins and have fun in the pool, require a solid 3-hours of travel each way.
By the time Mom and Buried are done getting our kids to where they need to go and back, there’s no time left for us. Not to mention the fact that our kids are getting older and staying up later and by the time we get them to bed and get on the couch, we barely have 45 minutes with which to watch whatever tiny bit of show or movie we want to watch before we pass out!
Summer is supposed to be relaxing, but when you’re a parent, relaxation is hard to come by. How can you relax when you’re a chauffeur and a cook and a social secretary and a maid and a playmate and a nurse and and and and and
It never ends, and in the summer, it’s on blast. Unless you send them to sleepaway camp, and I got so scarred by my experience (a story for another time), I wouldn’t do that even if I could afford it.
Thankfully, we are heading on vacation next week! Unfortunately our kids are coming, so it doesn’t really count.
Social Media Round-Up
Pop Culture Stuff
Okay, I saw Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
It’s long. Lots of chases. All the Indy movies feature a lot of chases, but these felt a little bit emptier than usual, but that may be due to the sheer length of the movie. I actually enjoyed the opening sequence - with the controversial de-aging CGI - but I’m not sure how I feel with about the third act. But overall I liked it more than Crystal Skull! And the both kids loved it, so that’s a win!
Started “Jury Duty”, on FreeVee/Amazon Prime, about a fake trial in which everyone is an actor except one guy on the jury. It tracks him as all sorts of hi-jinks occur, and features well-known actor James Marsden as an exaggeratedly assholish version of himself. It’s an easy watch, but halfway through I expected it to be funnier than it is.
A not so easy watch was the 6th episode of The Bear’s second season, which is 67 minutes of dysfunctional family-based anxiety, featuring a murderer’s row of guest stars. You’ll have to watch it to see who!
The Dad and Buried Podcast
The diehards know that I used to have a podcast. I co-hosted The Dad and Buried Podcast with my buddy Pete, a fellow Brooklyn father with three kids of his own (which he likes to lord over me, since I have a measly two. I’m not sure why he’s bragging!), and also with Mom and Buried, when we could find the time.
It’s about parenting, duh, and mostly features me whining about it, duh. With love, and sarcasm! But we love to feature input from the audience, so would love for you to listen and offer your feedback, especially if you have topic suggestions!
We’ll be finding the time again, and a new episode will be available soon - hopefully as soon as next week! Stay tuned via this link or watch my IG for news.
Vacation!
The Burieds are heading on vacation next week, so I can’t guarantee a new newsletter. But before then we’re hoping to have that new episode of the aforementioned podcast ready for you, and then we’ll be recording an episode ON LOCATION from vacation, so you’ll get to hear our fresh takes on all the side-eye we got on the plane and why bringing kids on vacation is never a good idea.
Until then, feel free to send me any questions via the button below, or leave comments on this post.