As we get closer to summer and the end of the 2021/22 school year, many families are looking forward to a break from routine, doing more outside and some quality family time. For other families, having children at home and away from the routine of school brings sheer panic.   

This brings me back to 2006, when I was first adjusting to life in a blended family with my new husband and his two sons, 12 and 14. Since I had much of the summer off and my husband did not, we all had to figure each other out and find activities we could enjoy both together and on our own.  

Part of our solution was to reach for opportunities that would structure the boys’ time in a healthy and productive way — so family trips and summer camp it was! We were fortunate to have the resources to provide these opportunities and that first summer passed quickly and the ones that followed were much easier to plan for because we grew into our relationship and figured out what worked for us. We were also grateful that the boys grew up into healthy and productive young men, but it should be said there were bumps along the way and some of those were attributable to schedule changes and transitions from school days into holiday days. 

Summer vacation represents a change in a family’s schedule and regardless of  the children’s age, there can be joyful moments as well as stressful ones. As we consider the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on families, in particular the impact on parents, it’s important to recognize that in some cases, many parents are experiencing difficult times. So in this issue of The Learning Team, we focus on exploring how parental mental health has been challenged, on what parents can do to build their own resilience, and on activities that can be accessed by parents to help them have a successful summer vacation with their children.  

Enjoy, and we will see you in the fall!