White Knuckle Parenting: Summer Adventures

I love going on summer adventures with my kids. Getting out of the house to do pretty much anything changes the whole dynamic of a day. It can be as huge as an overnight trip away or as small as gathering up three kids and six Crocs (it matters very little that they match) and making them spend a half hour at the park. If you have kids who are sitting at home whining about how everything is boring and any suggestion you have is the worst idea in the history of bad ideas, going somewhere automatically makes any day at least a little bit better.

I'm not saying that these outings always go smoothly—in fact, with my particular three children, they are often the opposite of smooth—but they are exposing my kids to new things, getting them out in the fresh air, and making sure they don't get bed sores from sitting on the couch and staring at the TV all summer.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Let's take the trail walk my family took last weekend. Sure, my youngest son was all, "I hate this place," and "How long is this going to last?" while we were still parking the car off of Beach Drive, but he also said, "Wait! I see something interesting!" more times than I can count during our short trek.

(Some of those interesting things: dog foot prints, two trees that fell on top of each other, and the bird who perched on a branch spanning the trail at eye level and refused to move until he pooped right in front of us. See? Interesting.)

And, yes, my middle son took to running ahead on the trail and hiding from us, but he also investigated natural caves, tried to swing on a vine, and made my husband laugh so hard that he snorted, making my littlest say, "Dad, you oinked!" (Which in turn made me laugh so hard that I oinked.)

Summer outings also give your oldest, maturest children opportunities to be know-it-alls. My husband, looking at a weird brick structure in the river: "I wonder if that's a well?" My 11-year-old, who is far too smarty pants for his own good: "I know it is. I've studied ancient buildings."

Said 11-year-old also managed to hurt himself by throwing a rock in the air and having it land on him—and then blaming it on a malevolent squirrel.

We also got to pet dogs on the trail, wade in the water (my husband: "Don't get your shoes wet!"; my kids: "Too late!"), and inspect rocks. Not to mention that two of my kids spent part of our walk with their hands slipped into mine, which makes everything right with the world as far as I'm concerned.

My oldest even tried to hold hands with my middle son, which made my heart grow three sizes. Sure, he was rebuffed ("You have the hiccups and I don't want to catch them"), but there was some definite brotherly bonding happening.

None of this would have happened if we'd just sat at home.

No, summer outings aren't all sun-dappled Kodak moments—I was overdressed for the heat, I had to keep admonishing my kids, "No shouting! No hitting! No touching! I said no touching!" and don't even get me started on how many spider webs I walked into—but there are moments of magic in them that make the bickering and complaining worthwhile.

I believe that as my kids get older, they are going to remember the joy of these outings far more than they will remember that it was too hot or that they got a bruise from throwing a rock at themselves. Even more than that, these outings are what will make their summer memories so special, far more so than sitting in front of an electronic device would.

Jean, a.k.a. Stimey, writes a personal blog at Stimeyland. You can find her on Twitter as @Stimey and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/Stimeyland.