Her Sexy, Sexy Summer...A Novel.

I'm working on a little something and am hoping you can take a look at it for me.  It's the start of a summertime novel...

"She didn't want to touch it; to take it in her nervous hands; to absorb it into her psyche, but she knew she had to.  She had no choice.  Her mother had talked with her about this very thing; about how timing is everything and that you have to do it when it's right.  But, she knew once she started, there would be no going back. No do overs. No new beginnings. This was it. Was this the day? The time? The way to start down this path? 

She opened her laptop, read through her AP Government homework assignment and knew it was the time.  "Summer homework, here I come," she said to herself, determined to get it done, get it done right and keep doing it, all summer long."


Like it? Me too.

Sorry to pull out the sexy, but I knew that if I started this post with "let me rant about summer homework" many of you might not read it.

Now that we know that the "thing" is, in fact, summer homework, let's dive in.

My kids have no less than 13 summer assignments between the three of them, all due at various points this summer.  While I'm all for maintaining their brain power and ensuring the financial return on the investment I've made in each of them, can we all agree that summer homework is for the birds?

To start off sounding like an old person, we never had summer homework growing up. And we are just fine!  We own businesses.  We are doctors, lawyers, parents, teachers and overall highly contributing members of society. I mean, look at me. I write real good (yes, that was intentional).

I truly believe that the pace of life has accelerated through technology and the resulting expectations (and probably other elements of the time/space continuum that I don't understand) to the point that we cannot appreciate or even stand "down time".  It makes us feel nervous, like we aren't taking care of things we should be focused on. As a society, we say we want this...more vacation time, more alone time, more "me" time. But when we get it, we fill it up with Facebook, Words with Friends, Instagram and myriad other online distractions that leave us feeling like we need to dig into the next thing, and right away.  We can't be still with ourselves.

I am guilty of this. I am always on my phone. I am always on email. I love social media, and binging on Netflix on a Saturday is my idea of a great time. So even though we identify this lack of quiet time as an issue, we just can't stop.

Enter summer homework.  Is the pace of the school year not enough?  I look at the hours my kids spend on homework, service hours, extra curricular activities and the time it takes to make me happy and it's a lot. I know it's more than I spent on all those things as a student.  And, the crazy thing is that I don't consider my kids overly scheduled. They have their passions and their projects, but I have never been a mom who has them involved in multiple things at one time.  At least I don't think I am that mom...

I deeply, truly love summer. I love that my kids sleep in. That I get to sleep in a little bit later. That we don't have to rush out the door in the morning. There is value in a slow breakfast. There is adventure in waking up and deciding what to do that day. There is a lot of money to be spent at Kings Island.

Old school summer fun from back in the day

I love the whole pace of summer living; slower, relaxed, spontaneous and chill.  But, homework gets in the way of all of that. It disrupts what I want summer to be about for my kids:  swimming, exploring, reading what they want to read, hanging out with friends and making memories.  With assignments due at various dates that are spread throughout the summer, they always have the next assignment looming in the back of their minds, wondering when they need to start working on it.

Now don't get me wrong. They will do their homework and they will do it well.  We are LiBrandi's and we do what's asked of us and with fervor.  But, I just. don't. want. to.

Hey look! An actual outdoor activity!

Can you blame me?  I'm sure there are studies that prove that summer homework improves performance throughout the school year.  And we are a performance driven society.  In America, we work more hours than any other civilized nation.  And we are proud of it.  But there is more to life than accomplishments (and this statement is coming from an extreme Type A, results oriented, super competitive person).  I often have to remind myself of this, but for me, the days I feel best about are those where I've caught up with a friend, bought Starbucks for the person behind me in the drive-thru line, made a dinner my kids really liked and that we ate together, started my day with meditation and ended it with saying thank you.  In short, my best days are days focused on people. Not things.

And while I know summer homework doesn't remove human connection from summer time, it does clutter our minds and distract us from it.  So while my oldest is working on creating a PPT about different political parties' views on four societal issues and my middle is churning through 100's of online math problems and my little 8 year old is doing two book reports, I will try to prod the laptops out of their hands for a little bit and ask them to look at the stars and catch fireflies.  To, despite its brightness, actually go out into the sun. To have slumber parties in the family room and make s'mores.  I will encourage them to finish my summer homework assignment:  stop being a student and just be you.

This is the best homework of the summer.  To put down the things and pick up the people.

The wonder of watching fireworks.
Make that a homework assignment this summer!