When I was growing up (admittedly a long time ago) summers always meant mangoes, visit to grand mothers’ and unlimited play time. But today there is a structure to this blissful summer holidays. 9 am – bollywood dance, 10 am – swimming, 11 am – drawing class, 1 pm – origami class, 2 pm – TV time, 3 pm – classical dance, 4 pm to 6 pm play time. Grand mothers and mangoes struggle to fit into this schedule. This is as much about "structured fun" as it is about keeping children busy all day so the mothers can "relax", I am told.
The entire month of March while ensuring children’s superlative results in exams, you as a mother, are desperately searching for good summer camps. You ask your friends, children’s friends, look up news paper listings, and search the internet. Any summer camp won’t do, you see. You need something that you can be proud of, something the child can enjoy, something that can be useful in the future and all this has to come in a budget too. Oh another thing, the peer pressure aspect needs to be addressed while doing all this.
Finally, summer vacations start in April and the fun begins for both the child and the parent.
Let’s take a look at that shall we?
Scenario 1 – If the child is going away for the entire day then the mother has to make breakfast, pack lunch and ensure she gets to the camp on time. I would say that isn’t very different from a regular school day. Is it?
Scenario 2 – If the child has got different classes at different locations, the mother has to be on her toes too. Pick her up from piano classes and drop her off at the swimming classes. Picking her up from there and taking her to the drawing classes. Do you get the drift?
Scenario 3 – If you live in apartments, the one advantage is that summer camps can come to you. But the time one spends ferrying children back and forth from the club house, the lunch bags, the time-keeing is all still there.
Some parents opt to keep the "fun" going through the year in an effort to develop their children into "well rounded" individuals.
And the "fun" doubles if you have more than one child. Wouldn’t you agree?
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