Snow Day!

Wow - we got snow over night. Lots of snow - maybe a foot or more. The area schools & town offices announced closures yesterday in anticipation.

Kimi's friends from the neighboring towns got all excited - knowing that school was cancelled they quickly texted each other to try to get together at the mall, which is closer to where they live than to us. When Kimi came to us asking if we could drive her out there tomorrow (which is now today) we asked how everyone was going to get to the mall when the roads were expected to be so bad that they cancelled school a day early. Conferring with her friends some more, they decided to scratch the plan.

I felt bad about this. These teens were so excited to have a day off, to just be free of their normally scheduled lives & do their own thing. It highlighted for me how much freer my kids are to do the things they love to do when they want to do it.

I can remember how lovely summer vacation was - the clock barely existed. My brother & I got up when we wanted to, ate when we wanted to, hung out or played or watched TV or swam or rode our bikes or listened to music when we wanted to. How often do young people get to make these kind of decisions for themselves? At least around here - the metro Boston area - parents are strongly encouraged to schedule up their kids' lives. School is followed by after school programs, organized sports &/or music lessons. Weekends are crammed with enrichments, enrichments that the kids do without their parents (or their parents are there, but watching from the sidelines). Vacation breaks bring out "camps" at the schools. Summer vacation? Send your kids to day camp!

I know that most families are duel-income, which creates child care issues that families with a stay-at-home parent don't usually have. And I'm not saying that there isn't value for kids to participate in these kind of programs, lessons, or camps. But when a child's life becomes a string of scheduled events, when does that child get to just Be? To just chill & hang & day dream & choose whatever s/he wants to do?

When do they get their snow days?