Summer Outings: Are They Worth the Pain?

Uh...hi.  I think I started this post about five days ago.  Or more. Yeah, summer is getting the best of me but that's okay.  Instead of blogging today I did stuff like sitting outside in the beautiful evening eating snowcones with my daughters and then taking my kids to see my niece sing and now of course, I'm watching the Olympics and allowing myself a few moments to type, pausing often to cheer on the beach volleyball gals.

Anyway, here's what I had to say a week ago.

Yesterday we had a pretty crazy day - you know, your basic summer day.  We spent the morning bustling around trying to check off everything on our "I swear we're going to do these things every single day" lists - a chore, a homework page, practicing, (I told you that would start to be an issue....), making beds, reading, stuff like that.  Bustle bustle bustle.  We had to fit it in early because I had had a moment of realizing that summer is over in just four weeks and that I hadn't done every single summery thing there is to do so get on it!  I signed us up for a tour of the Sweet Candy Company plus I also found out that our Pass Of All Passes would get us into one more baseball game this summer...and of course it was last night after the tour.

Sometimes I wonder if all these summer outings are really worth it.  You would think so, but each outing includes so much unpleasantness with the "get your shoes ON!" and "stop poking each other!" and "I am NOT spending $15 on a box of taffy!" and "Why are you crying now?"  It is really not what I expected - trying to fill up a summer full of fun and yet have to drag the kids practically kicking and screaming to get out the door.  Sigh.  Plus there is always drama.  For example, yesterday at the tour of the candy company, my sweet daughter Bitty was told multiple times to please please use the bathroom before the tour started.  She protested profusely.  "I don't need to go!  Nothing would come out!  Stop bugging me!"  And...then she almost wet her pants on the tour.  There we were with this really young cute tour guide cheerfully talking along with no one listening, especially the three parents in attendance, because we were all watching my daughter do a seriously frantic version of the potty dance while clutching herself inappropriately.

Bundle wouldn't take off her candy tour hair net for several hours.

Although the baseball game later that evening held no moments of panic such as the one I described above, it did have its own measure of unpleasantness.  We took the free tickets on the general admission grassy knoll which faced directly into the very hot setting sun, which the kids found absolutely unbearable.  Due to our bad habit of cramming too many activities into one day, continuing on into the night no matter how exhausted the kids, we had barely had any food since about noon, not counting the pound and a half of taffy each kid inhaled after the tour.  So we picked up some outrageously expensive and slightly underwhelming food, including two large drinks, 1 of which we promptly dumped over upon sitting down on the grass.  It was a very satisfying feeling to watch my money soak into the grass.  At least the ice was left over for the kids to chuck at each other.

So yes, it sounds miserable and reading that I wonder why on earth we did it at all.  But what I haven't gotten to yet was that soon after the dumping of the sprite we bumped into two families whom we adore so we scootched over and sat by them, leaving our sprite puddle for someone else to enjoy.  The sun finally went down and we were no longer blinded, but comfortable in the warm shade of the stadium.  The kids rolled on the grass, bothering our neighbors and watching the stars come out.  We didn't catch much of the game but we did some wonderful catching up with old friends. I wouldn't have missed it!

So I guess the final assessment is that yes, Summer outings can be painful.  But also worth it.  And I guess it comes down to the fact that I'd rather deal with them crying at a baseball game than crying at home.  At least it's a change of scene!