I am trying a little experiment this summer- Parenting 80's style.
Kids are home and I am off work for the summer.
What if I parent this summer the way my parents and my friends' parents did it in the 80s?
We didn't necessarily turn out "normal", but many of us have happy and fulfilling lives.
So I am trying a summer of less structure, less planning, more outside and more TV.
This is for my own sanity for sure and possibly that of my children? Time will tell.
If you can't experiment on your kids, who CAN you experiment on, right?
Fingers crossed.
DAY 1-
Sesame Street with breakfast (let them watch until they got bored with it)
Sent them upstairs to play in their rooms while I got some stuff done around the house. Whatever game they made up seemed to involve pretending to be dogs and fetching small toys.
Public Library- took out books and movies
Picnic Lunch at Park with Dad (by "picnic" I mean PBJ sandwiches, a can of Pringle chips and a zip lock bag full of cherries. I let them spit the seeds in the grass)
Nap (I took a nap, too. Let the 6 year old play on his Game Boy type device next to me while I slept. It was glorious.)
Movie- w/popcorn popped on the stove (we have no VCR and no TV in our upstairs living spaces, but we did watch a DVD from the library on my laptop which is as close as I can get to an 80's experience)
Outside- that's it. just play outside. Bubbles and light sabers were involved. I did my own gardening and dinner prep and did not facilitate anything.
Go with Dad- I had dinner plans with my girlfriends and so Dad took boys to his basketball game at his friend's house where he let his friend's 11 year old daughter keep an eye on the boys while he played basketball. He then brought them home and put them to bed.
So far this 80's parenting is delightful. I am unsure why I have not tried this before.
To be continued...
