What are your biggest summertime challenges?

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I’m going to be speaking in the next week on, “Transforming Summer Challenges into Opportunities”, and I want your feedback!

What do you find to be the biggest challenges of the summertime? I’d love if you could detail in the comments box about why this is a challenge. I want to tailor my talk to the things I hear people struggling with most often. If you’re not struggling but you’ve heard common threads with your friends, please share!

For those in Israel who asked about details of where/when I’ll be speaking in the next couple of weeks, here’s a list:

– Yavniel – Monday July 27, -11 a m – 1 pm – “Transforming Summer Challenges into Opportunities”, presentation followed by a question and answer session. I hope to leave additional time to answer questions one on one. This talk will have a parenting focus but not focus exclusively on parenting, will be addressing concerns of women of various ages.

– Tzfat -Monday, July 27, 8 – 9:30 pm: “Transforming Summer Challenges into Opportunities”. This talk will have a parenting focus for mothers of school age children and below.

– Ramat Beit Shemesh, Aug. 1, 4:45 pm: Shabbos Nachamu parsha shiur, Nachal Noam 12/1. Spiritual lessons with day to day relevance based on the weekly Torah portion; specific topic to be announced.

– Ramat Beit Shemesh, Aug. 9, 8 – 10 pm: “The Truth About How Kids Learn”. This talk will be geared toward those interested in learning more about homeschooling, with an extended question and answer session to follow. Nahar Hayarkon 22/4

I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts – thanks for your help!

Avivah

Comments

10 responses to “What are your biggest summertime challenges?”

July 23, 2015

Anne

I’m in a slightly odd position, I’m an older student and doing a full-time summer internship in my field. My biggest problem is reserving time to do any formal studying at all. Every day is learning because I’m doing the job I would like to be hired for in a year but I still fall pray to being out of “school” mode and just wanting to relax in the evenings and on weekends. There are plenty of times I could have been doing some light review (rules of evidence, state statutes, etc.) but I napped or zoned out to Netflix instead.

Reply
1. July 23, 2015
  
  Avivah
  
  Thank you for sharing, Anne! I really hear that. I have a similar challenge in a different area.
  
  Reply
July 24, 2015

Sharon

As a homeschool mom I struggle because my children are home and needing me but I desperately need physical and mental space to prepare for the next year. So either I ignore them, ignore me, or both. Not completely bad, but not quite what could be. Sometimes I get them to help me with the planning and preparing, but only a little. Too much computer. But also self driven activities and some learning.

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July 24, 2015

Susan

I don’t have children at home anymore, but wanted to say how glad I am that you are getting out and speaking. What a bonus for so many moms and for you as well.

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1. July 31, 2015
  
  Avivah
  
  Thank you, Susan! I love speaking and am glad to have the opportunities.
  
  Reply
July 27, 2015

Sara

Will you be speaking in Jerusalem anytime soon?

Reply
1. July 31, 2015
  
  Avivah
  
  I thought I would be speaking in Jerusalem this month but instead will be speaking for that organization via webinars instead of in person. If you have suggestions for organizations that would be interested in having me speak on parenting related topics, I’m open to suggestion!
  
  Reply
July 28, 2015

Mikki

Hi
I don’t live in Israel unfortunately but maybe the moms you will speak to can real ate to some of my challenges.
Finding time for me to relax- when kids are in school they have a certain schedule and I can work my own needs around it. With kids from 15-3.5 ka’h I always have at least one child- often two, home and needing my attention. (Take me…, make me…., help me with …, buy me….,) I am enjoying having the kids home to bond with but would like to find way to really carve out time for daily (better) tefilah, exercise, relax time.
Part of the problem is also that summer for me also seems like the time to sort through all the stuff that accumulated during the year – I do NOT do it erev pesach bec that time is full enough with cleaning and cooking BH.

My other issue is one of schedules too. I want the kids to feel a sense of freedom from the tight structure they have during the year- kids at age 7 6 already at school from 8:25-430 at grade 4 level that they add on another hour for most days as well as Sunday and an extra class once a week for gym (plus accepted extra curricular learning programs that almost all the boys do twice a week)
So I want summer to be without the constant rush to fit everything in- just breathe and enjoy.
But sometimes this goes too far and then they get stuck wanting to sleep until noon regularly (especially the older kids who are in teenage bodies)
Oops- missed shachris
Oops lost half a day
Etc.

So a balancing here would be helpful for me ( what I think compounds this is that I’ll try to use the time they are chilling out for me to relax)

Thanks for all your advice
Hatzlacha
Mikki

Reply
1. July 28, 2015
  
  Mikki
  
  One more thing that I thought of as my kids got dressed this morning, was tznius. Some of the girls in our neighbourhood wear knee socks and others don’t. I find that in the summer, there are a number of girls who’s families normally wear knee socks, who aren’t. I see a number of my friends daughters wanting to go that way and get “flip flops” to walk around in and the moms at unsure what to do. In addition there are subtle clothing issues as well- during the school year the girls have a uniform and most issues disappear, but sometime they want denim skirts and cool jean jackets and tee-shirts with funny words on them.
  For some families in my neighbourhood this is not the norm and it seems to creep in during summer time.
  The boys as well like to wear tee- shirts with crazy pictures or words on it but we all know the double standard for tznius. Even if it’s not so kosher the boys can get away with it, but the girls end up getting a “reputation” for not being so kosher
  Maybe this happens in Israel too.
  
  Reply
2. July 31, 2015
  
  Avivah
  
  Great points, Mikki, thanks for your comments! When I spoke in Tzfat I talked about this issue in addition to some others – the importance of finding time for yourself and how to practically do that. I wish I had more writing time to share it here with you!
  
  Reply