• I have three kids, 8 and under, and like many parents, I struggle to keep them engaged all summer.
• Last year, we signed them up for nine consecutive weeks of camp.
• We were all exhausted by the end, so we decided to scale it back this summer.

By the time September rolled around and my kids’ school started again, we were all exhausted. But not from hearing my kids say “I’m bored” for the 11th time in an hour during summer break, but rather because we overcommitted to too many summer camps.

I had to have major surgery in early July and figured sending my kids to nine consecutive weeks of camp was a great idea. They’d be out of the house, entertained with their friends.

Instead, the summer felt like a continuation of the school year, with no real break. So this summer, we decided to send them only to camp for a week, and everyone is happier.

I grew up doing nothing in the summer

I’m from Argentina, and our seasons are opposite to those in the US. My summer break would run from mid-December to mid-February, and my parents sent me to zero camps. We would go to the beach, we would take a two-week family vacation, and for the rest of the time, I was expected to entertain myself. I would devour book after book, go to the movies regularly, and one summer I learned how to knit; another, I learned how to play dominoes with my grandmother.

After moving to the US and having kids, I was caught off guard by how much planning goes into summers here. On the one hand, many households have two working parents, so there’s a need for someone to watch the kids. But on the other hand, it feels like there’s no room for kids to just get bored.

We signed them up for too many camps

At first, my kids would attend a couple of weeks of camp at their Montessori preschool. They would hang out with the same friends, play around a sprinkler, and eat ice pops every day. We sent them there more for the social aspect than anything else — we wanted them to have friends since we had just relocated from New York to Maine, and it felt like the easiest way to create a community.

As they grew older, we started exploring camps that leaned into their personal interests. Last summer, we asked our kids what camps they wanted to go to. It ranged from a pottery camp, a soccer camp, a mystical creatures camp, and more.

Because I was having a hysterectomy and wasn’t going to be able to do much parenting, we figured it was the perfect time to say yes to all their requests. After a two-week trip in Sicily, we came back to the US for nine straight weeks of camp.

We leaned into ‘get bored’ this year

At first, my kids were having so much fun at camp. But as the weeks went on, they all grew tired of the same routine. And I’m not going to lie, my husband and I were also getting tired of it.

From the constant shuttling of kids from one location to the next, to making and packing three lunches, snacks, and water bottles, to constantly running laundry to keep up with camp shirts, towels, and specific clothes they needed to bring. I felt like I was doing way more than during the school year.

So this summer, we decided to swing the pendulum all the way to the other side and lean into a summer of nothing. We signed our kids up for one week of camp so they could still see their friends, and besides a two-week family trip, the rest of the summer is empty.

We’ve encouraged our kids to call their friends on their landline and make plans. That has turned into them making independent playdates with our neighbors who have kids. We have traded off having the kids in our house or theirs. We’ve had days where my kids just spend hours building with Lego blocks and leaning into imaginative play. I’ve taken them to see “Toy Story 5” and the new Minions movie.

The biggest surprise for me has been that, when together and not rushing, my kids fight less with each other. And the biggest gift has been getting so much more family time than in any other summer before, which to me feels like the whole point of summer anyway.

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