Summer Vacation isn’t always “a trip”

When school started up in the fall, the first assignment elementary school teachers used to give was to write a paper about “What I did on my summer vacation”. I’m sure it was simply a way to get to know the new crop of students and to shake the rust off of our sun-baked brains. They probably could have cared less what we actually did.

I remember being a little embarrassed at the time when I didn’t have a big event to report on like some of my classmates. Growing up, we didn’t go to “the beach” every summer. I think I was about 11 years old before I saw the ocean for the first time. On the other hand, I do remember a lot of camping, horseback riding, fishing and swimming in my summers. My brother and I did summer 4-H camps and Vacation Bible School and various other activities, mostly intended to keep our mother from pulling her hair out. Those were the things I wrote about in my back to school essay on the first day of school.

As summer breaks from school get shorter and parental work schedules get tighter, I think we try to do “more” in less time. We parents often think about the summer trip without remembering the little activities. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for a summer vacation. I’m all for taking off and going to the beach, digging my toes in the sand and playing in the surf. It is a great excuse to take a break from work, play, nap and relax.

I just wonder if, in the process of planning the big summer event, we forget about the smaller activities and outings that make summer just as special and just as memorable; the day trips to the parade, the festival or the lake often mean more to us as we look back on our childhood. I know those are the things I think back on now that I have my own children. (I realize there is a fallacy in my logic. I’m just remembering my childhood. If we had taken those big trips, I would probably remember them, too.)

Still, sometimes I think we put too much emphasis on the things that don’t necessarily matter to make up for not emphasizing the things that do. We worry about making sure summer is memorable for our children, without making sure we spend time with them and help them experience life. My daughters have been to the beach a dozen times in their young lives and we are making another trip this summer. Yet, it occurs to me that they haven’t seen many of the things that I saw growing up close to home.

Which one of us had the better childhood?