In a culture where children do too much, what happens when you let your children do nothing at all?
Facing summer with her two boys, Pam Lobley was sifting through signups for swim team, rec camp, night camp, scout camp, and enrichment classes. Overwhelmed at the choices, she asked her sons what they wanted to do during summer: “Why can’t we just play?” they asked.
A summer with no scheduled activities at all … Could they really have a summer like that?
Facing summer with her two boys, Pam Lobley was sifting through signups for swim team, rec camp, night camp, scout camp, and enrichment classes. Overwhelmed at the choices, she asked her sons what they wanted to do during summer: “Why can’t we just play?” they asked.
A summer with no scheduled activities at all … Could they really have a summer like that?
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My memoir, Why Can't We Just Play? chronicles one glorious summer when I let my kids take "time off" from all scheduled activities - no camps, classes, or any kind of structure at all. We had an old-fashioned, 1950's style summer.
It is packed with funny stories, tips for slowing down, and poignant moments of realization that kids do in fact grow up. I hope it will inspire you to relish the "growing up" years while they last. |
I’ve read a ton self-help/parenting/how the heck do I do this/type of books and this one is different. The author is funny!! I related to her so much. This is a summer must read for any busy parent trying to navigate through the world of raising kids.
Eliza Poppy Co Lifestyle Blog, 6/23/16
My original intention for reading this book was reassurance in my unpopular parenting choices. We live in an area where kids are involved in multiple extra-curricular activities, participate in competitive sports by age 6, and the pressure to "keep up" is unreal. So I figured this memoir, written by a mother intent to recreate a summer like the 1950s, would be right up my alley. Little did I know how much this book would affect me and in ways I didn't expect.
This paragraph from the last chapter sums it up: "This is the message of the 1950s: their low expectations. Or rather, their reasonable expectations. We demand so much more of our family life - our family experience - than previous generations did. And it saddles all of us with an unachievable burden. If you're looking for the main difference between childhood in the 1950s and now, it is that children were freer then. Free to imagine, free to be bored, free to fail, free to be average." You know me and my unreasonable expectations for my life. The "permission" to unburden myself from the demands of our city and (more importantly) my perfectionist, overachieving tendencies...let's just say it was a reminder I really needed. It's okay not to carry the weight of every.single.thing.
Ashley. The Big White Farmhouse.com
I’ve read a ton self-help/parenting/how the heck do I do this/type of books and this one is different. The author is funny!! I related to her so much. This is a summer must read for any busy parent trying to navigate through the world of raising kids.
Eliza Poppy Co Lifestyle Blog, 6/23/16
My original intention for reading this book was reassurance in my unpopular parenting choices. We live in an area where kids are involved in multiple extra-curricular activities, participate in competitive sports by age 6, and the pressure to "keep up" is unreal. So I figured this memoir, written by a mother intent to recreate a summer like the 1950s, would be right up my alley. Little did I know how much this book would affect me and in ways I didn't expect.
This paragraph from the last chapter sums it up: "This is the message of the 1950s: their low expectations. Or rather, their reasonable expectations. We demand so much more of our family life - our family experience - than previous generations did. And it saddles all of us with an unachievable burden. If you're looking for the main difference between childhood in the 1950s and now, it is that children were freer then. Free to imagine, free to be bored, free to fail, free to be average." You know me and my unreasonable expectations for my life. The "permission" to unburden myself from the demands of our city and (more importantly) my perfectionist, overachieving tendencies...let's just say it was a reminder I really needed. It's okay not to carry the weight of every.single.thing.
Ashley. The Big White Farmhouse.com
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BETTER LIVING THROUGH CHAOS! Back in the day, and by that I mean, before there were digital newspapers, I wrote a regular humor column. It appeared in print. Weird, I know. I collected the best of those columns and put them in an ebook, "Better Living Through Chaos". The book has 27 short and funny essays that you can read in the parking lot or the checkout line or wherever it is that you are sitting around wishing you had something more productive to do. |
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You Definitely Know You're A Mom When ... The perfect gift for mothers with young children ... Each page finishes the sentence "You Definitely Know You're a Mom When ..." with a different snippet from a mom's life such as ... "your dog becomes a dog again." or "... you're looking forward to your upcoming colonoscopy as some much-needed quiet time away from the kids." Available on Amazon. |