Rocking Your Summer with Your Tween
Okay, this may sound dreary and boring, but you will love the results. Set summer expectations. Here’s what I’m thinking.
Get up time and go to bed time can be tricky and garner pushback from your tween. Why do it? Because you need quality adult time – kid free time at night. This is adult self-care and you deserve it. And, your tween needs at least 8 – 10 hours of sleep. Collaborate with your child on this. If you’ve been to a TY&Y workshop, you’re familiar with this win-win approach.
Are you adding extra chores, activities, or learning new stuff? All that energy and time devoted to homework can be repurposed. Invite your child to choose what they’d like to do as you set a minimum requirement. The following ideas may be right for at your home:
- Kids teach parents tech hacks
- Exercise together
- Design menus
- Learn to code
- Volunteer
- Make a family play list
- Cook or bake new recipes
- Organize family pictures
- Plant a garden
- Pickle vegetables or can fruit
- Purge closets/drawers of unused items
- Set a budget
- Read a book together
- Start a family gratitude journal
What about sleep overs? Are there any real benefits from your child staying up too late and you having to spend the next day or two with a grumpy tween? I can’t think of one. A fun evening with a friend or two can end with a trip for ice cream and free home drops by 9 PM. Everybody wins.
Family game night. Weather it’s horse basketball, board games or a scavenger-hunt the fun brings you together. Take turns picking the games. Play together – stay together.