By Meagan Gerchen MSW, LCSW
Summer is full of fun, sunshine, and vacations. It can also be very stressful for many families.
Without the structure and schedule of the school week, many parents struggle to keep their
families engaged and active throughout the summer months. Humans thrive on structure, and
we need to do our best to maintain one – no matter what time of year. Here are some tips to
keep yourself and your family in a structure throughout the summer months…
1. Create a summer schedule. The more visual reminders the better! You could use a
whiteboard on your family’s refrigerator, a physical planner for yourself, or potentially an
application on your phone to keep track of the plans you have throughout the week. You
could even set reminders on your phone as well for appointment or task reminders. It
may give you or your child joy to check off the tasks on this list or check off a box next to
it to show what you have accomplished!
2. Ongoing activities and routines are important. Adults continue to have their work
schedules throughout the year; however, it is different for children. Look into ongoing
summer, sports, and camps for them to continue to have structure and childcare
throughout the summer. If that is not financially possible, look into ongoing play dates
with other peers to continue to stay busy throughout the day.
3. Make sure to include chores and responsibilities in the summer schedule. It is important
to remind yourself and your children that responsibilities are year-round. It could be
beneficial to chat with them about chores that are expected of them weekly and make
visual reminders, so they know what to expect for the upcoming week. Kids truly do
thrive when they have some consistency and structure.
4. Continue to prioritize your physical needs. It is important to get at least 7-8 hours of
sleep, have healthy meals, and have enough water throughout the day. Even though it
can be very tempting to just let kiddos regularly stay up really late and eat junk food
because it is summer break, try to keep your bedtimes and mealtimes as consistent as
you can. You want to ensure that you still prioritize your and your family’s health and give
yourself energy throughout the day.
5. Take time for self-care, even if this is 30 minutes to an hour a day. It is important to do
activities for yourself. Self-care is establishing behaviors to ensure holistic well-being.
Self-care can be taking a nap, exercising, spending time with friends, reading, or
engaging in hobbies that you enjoy.
All in all, remember to be kind and compassionate towards yourself too! There are so many
roles that we carry as humans such as professionals, parents, family members, board
members, students, and members of our community. Try not to put pressure on you and your
family to be perfect! However, you can try to remain consistent in some of these aspects. Most
importantly, don’t forget to enjoy yourselves over these next few months ahead!