When Mom Runs Out of Energy During Summer Vacation

The summer vacation is long, and my children seem to have endless energy. They want to go out, do things, have fun, invite friends over, and keep asking for one more activity and one more outing. Meanwhile, I feel like I’m running on empty. At the beginning of the vacation, I put in the effort, came up with ideas, and made plans. But now, all I want is a little peace and some time for myself. How do I make it through the rest of the vacation?

First, it helps to separate two facts: the children have a lot of energy, and Mom has run out of energy. The fact that both are happening in the same home does not mean that one has to solve the other.

Sometimes we enter summer vacation with an unspoken assumption that it is our job to “create the vacation”: to make sure things are interesting, keep the children occupied, drive them places, host their friends, surprise them, and prevent them from getting bored. Then, when we become exhausted, we feel as though we have somehow failed.

However, children do not need their mother to be their full-time entertainment director.

A mother is allowed to say, “Today, I need to rest.” It is okay to have simple days at home. It is okay for children to be bored, to think, come up with their own ideas, play, and figure out what to do with what they have. In fact, it is important for them to learn that the household does not need to revolve around their energy level at every moment.

A mother who recognizes her own limits and does not act out of guilt is teaching her children an important lesson: everyone in the family has needs, wishes, and limitations, and it is possible to live together happily even when everyone does not want the same thing at the same time.

Summer vacation is not measured by how many attractions and outings we managed to squeeze in, and good motherhood is certainly not measured by how far we pushed ourselves to the limit for our children.

Sometimes, when a mother stops feeling responsible for keeping her children happy every moment of the day, she discovers that they are perfectly capable of managing on their own.

And she may even have a little energy left to actually enjoy being with them.