by Coach Debbie

School’s out for summer and the kids are home with nothing to do!

Maybe your heart rejoices, maybe you quiver in the overwhelmingness of it all.

Let’s make it the best summer ever….no Pinterest craftiness or wallet breaking involved!

1. Put your kids to work in the kitchen. If they are home all day long, it’s time to crack the whip. Give them a dull knife to cut up salad toppings and fruit. No rusty knives allowed. Have them prep the eggs for the stove. Egg Shells optional.
2. Keep things boring. No more of this “Hey, what do you all want to do today? Go to an amusement park? Visit tropical islands? Take a helicopter ride?” Instead, “Hey, what do you all want to do today? Go to a local park with swings? Play in the sandbox? Fly toy helicopters in your room?” Creativity blossoms from boredom. Lower the bar.
3. Put your kids to work outside. For every 50 weeds you pull, you get a cup of fruit salad. For every bike you park, you get to stay up 1 minute later tonight. For every plant you water, you earn 1 minute of sprinkler play.
4. Force laziness. Teenagers are pros at being sedentary and sleepy. Start them young. Make them go to their bedroom daily for down time to sleep, rest, read, or play a boring board game. This is YOUR time, Mom! This is your time! Go paint your nails, even if the captives bang on the door begging to be released. Hide in your closet to read your Bible, even when the possibility is real that something just broke because you heard the phrase “uh oh.” Go lie on the couch and watch Keeping Up With the Kardashians, even though the laundry mountain escalates.
5. Put your kids to work inside. Rooms are cleaned or the TV is “broken.” Bathrooms are cleaned or the kitchen is “closed.” Laundry is folded or the video games are “hiding.” There’s nothing more a kid wants to share the first day of school this fall than, “Hey everybody! Guess what? My mom taught me how to scrub baseboards this summer! Wooohoooo!”
6. Be slack. Ever see the “Friends” episode where Joey teaches recently unemployed Ross to space out his tasks? Instead of running your kids on 10 errands in a day (post office, grocery store, bank, gas station, dry cleaning, mall, etc) pick just 2. The most important 2. Well-behaved errand-runners are extinct. Do you honestly expect your crew to be pleasant store after store after store? No chance. You’ll be less productive, sure, but you’ll also need less blood pressure medication (which saves another errand).
7. Be blind to chores. After doing the above 6 items, you realize you’re ready to take the Mother of The Year stuff seriously. Without obligation of spa days with threenagers or renting a paintball party for tweens, you can actually be a halfway cool mom with minimal effort. The local pet store is like a zoo for little kids, except it’s 30 minutes and free. Visiting a different park means the kids are distracted and you may even squeeze in a playground workout. The farmer’s market is a way for the kids to potentially score enough free samples to equal snack while you get loot for your fridge. The bathtub can be filled with glowsticks and toys so that you don’t have to do the whole pool headache.

WHAT WOULD YOU ADD TO THIS LIST O’ LAME? WE LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU, UNLESS YOU’RE ANGRY.