Kids, it's summer, Go to bed? or Go Play!

How many people can recall thier summer childhood?  You know, the glory years of long, hot, fun summer days and late or sleepless nights?  Friends, swimming, fishing, boating and sleeping under the stars?  Summer camp, or family picnics and outings?

As Adults, many of us can look back upon our childhood and recall fragments of similar scenarios which dance like gentle ghosts across our memories.  These were the years we were young, carefree and eager to take on (and in) everything we could before crashing into an exhausted heap at three or four in the morning.  Somehow this was just enough of a revitalizing sleep to allow us enough energy to do it all over again the next day.

School was out, and it was time to play!  There was no set bedtime, at least not for many of us late pre-teen and early teens, not in the summer!  You went to bed when you were drained.  There were no early wake-ups to rush to the bus stop, nor any schoolwork to be done.  No, this was a time for fun, family bonding and exploring the limits as to how far we could push our young growing bodies.  Sure, often times we slept till mid afternoon as a reslult.

Not all adults reflecting upon thier early teen childhood will have these same summer experiences, and I am inclined to pity them as a result?  There are a variety of reasons they may exhibit a diffrent view of what summer for a child should be based upon thier own experiences.  Perhaps it is due to enforcment of parental constraints such as a strict set bedtime, perhaps thier parents regard this as adult time. Pehaps they already have a steady summer jobs or thier localization was not conducive tward this type of behaviour?  In any case, these individuals as adults may have a diffrent idea of how a child should spend thier summer.  In thier later teens as they grows older, as did I, they may take on an annual summer job.

Because of the diversity of variables our culture shares in this regard, these diffrences can interfere with how we view each other as parents to our own and other's children now that we are grown.  Some may frown on this laxity in schedule and routine; Other may not.

For instance, for me, as I stated, summer was a time for myself as a late pre-teen to mid-teen child to learn, grown and explore without constraint to a stringent set bedtime.  This was my youth!  This was my time to shine and push myself to my limits!  Heck, in early June it was still light out till nearly midnight!  Then, a few weeks prior to school starting back up, I would find with reluctance that I was forced to acceed to the demands of my parents that I again begin to develop a set bedtime ritual, so that by the time school had started I was again shrouded in the oppressive, drab and mundane. 

Others having grown up in a more stringent or structered manner durring the summers of thier youth, might not agree with a carefree, no holes barred summer such as this.  Indeed, some such as these may contend that the parents of such children are poor role models for thier children.  Then again, perhaps these individuals may learn to identify with a carefree type of approach with thier own children having regretted not being able to have had such in thier own youth?

In any case, you only live once, (most of us will agree) and as the strength and vitality of our youth very soon fades it is our turn to say;  "Go play! You are only a child of your youth but for a short time! It won't be long till you must take on the burden and responsibility being an adult entails.  Go play my child, and while your at it, bring me a cold one and throw another log on the bonfire;  Did you see that shooting star?  Nert's!  Canasta! Rummy!  It's 3am, you should get some sleep, remember, we are going to the lake tomorrow!"

So, while I can understand the need for structure in an early to mid-teen child's life, durring these too few summer years of our youth, consider letting a child be a child.  Let them explore the world they live in at thier leisure, sharing with them in it, building memories and being a family together in a responsible careing and loving manner.  Hopefully one day, they being the adult, will say; "Hey kids; I remember the long summers of my youth so so long ago.......... Go Play!"