PARENTING: SCHOOL’S OUT FOR SUMMER
Mom! I am bored.”
Ah, these dreaded words!
A week into summer vacations and children begin a chorus of complaints: “I am bored”; “There’s nothing to do”; “There is no excitement in our lives”. The days are too long, too dull or too hot and the grumbling goes on and on. Children wait for summer holidays with a great deal of anticipation but once summer break starts they are restless and unhappy.
Summer camps can be a great way to allow children to learn and keep busy
Most mothers don’t know what to do and how to fill the long summer days with enough activities and excitement to keep their children occupied and out of trouble. Containing energetic and bored children cooped up indoors for 10 weeks is like an open invitation to insanity and trouble.
Interestingly, it is not just the kids who do not know how to manage their overflowing energy and idle hands and minds during summer break. Parents too do not want children underfoot 24/7.
Mothers with full-time jobs want to see their children occupied with healthy activity and responsibly supervised so that they can work with a relaxed mind and not keep wondering if the house has been blown up in their absence or the kids have gotten themselves into a ‘Home Alone situation’. Another worry is what the children might watch on television or access on the internet when they are at home all day long.
One answer to their dilemma is sending the kids off to summer camps which offer a wide variety of activities and learning opportunities. Many elite schools and institutions in big cities offer extensive summer activities such as art and crafts, hiking and camping, coding and computer programming, swimming, cooking, music and dance, sports, academics and martial arts lessons under trained and professional teachers. The downside is the exorbitant fee that they charge.
Some parents believe that it is pure extravagance to spend so much money on children’s summer activities. After all, they say, most summer camps are about children dabbling in arts, paints and colours which can easily be done at home for just a fraction of the cost.
What these parents overlook is that summer camps provide an opportunity for kids to meet new people of their age, some nice and some annoying and they will learn to interact with them. After all people-skills, building relationships and friendships are one of the most important life-skills and something every child should be well-versed in.
For many parents, however, summer camps are more about keeping their children busy — and out of trouble. Saba, a mother of two boys aged 11 and 13, says that she has no other way to keep her two hyperactive kids out of trouble. “They will set the houseplants on fire, drive the car without permission and endanger themselves or make the domestic staff run away with their crazy pranks. Summer camps are expensive but the only solution when it comes to dealing with bored kids.”
Farwa, a caregiver to a large family, is desperately looking for a summer camp for her three children aged below 12 years for a different reason. “Sending children to a summer camp is the only way I can get my household chores done and have some peace and quiet for a few hours. After staying up half the night with my baby, I need rest which I cannot get with all my kids at home,” she says.
Other parents like Mrs Rashid feels the summer holidays are a great time to allow children to explore activities they normally wouldn’t. “It is almost criminal to waste the time children have during summer vacations,” she says who wants her children to hone their creative and artistic abilities during the summer — something she feels cannot be done during regular school days.