Today is the first day of the summer holidays.  The last couple of weeks have been tough for many reasons: my Nana passing away, work situations changing, my daughters offering me their most challenging behaviour…

But summer is about having fun.  I remember when I was a kid, the summer holidays seemed never-ending in the best kind of way – pony weeks, activity weeks, playing with my friends, visiting my Dad, seeing family, day trips with Mum, holidays in Cornwall.

I’m not sure when summer stopped being fun and became just another season.  Actually, I’m not really sure when I just stopped having fun altogether.

It had been niggling for a while.  I’m not great at playing with the girls – that’s more their Dad’s role.  I’ve often been told that I need to relax and loosen up more and just “have some fun, for goodness sake!”.  This was highlighted further when I re-did my Signature Strengths a few months ago and ‘Humour and Playfulness’ still persisted in ranking the lowest in the list of 24 different characteristics (below ‘Faith and Spirituality’, and I don’t believe in God – what’s that about?!)

So I’ve made a pact with myself:  during the next 6 weeks, in between seeing clients, my little family and I are going to have as much fun as possible.

I want us to create happy memories that my girls can carry with them into adulthood, and look back on fondly, the warm feeling of happiness spreading through them as they recall the different places we went to and things we did together.

I’m well aware that in between all of these fun times there is will be tiredness, which will inevitably lead to tantrums, and strops, and arguments – I just hope that together we can make the positives outweigh any temporary negatives that might creep in.

I’ve made a list (of course!) of some of the places we could go to and things we can do, and the girls have included all the things that they want to do too.  I’ll report back weekly throughout the summer and at the end of the holidays with how we get on.

Actually, we sort of started the challenge a few weeks ago.  We’ve already been to the Great British Food, Drink and Music Festival at Shugborough:

a Teddy Bear’s Picnic at Izaak Walton Cottage where we played games and got our faces painted:

the annual ‘Party in the Park’ in Stafford Town Centre where we ate ice cream and the girls met characters from one of their favourite TV shows:

had a visit from family I haven’t seen for years and caught up on all of our news:

had our haircut for the first time in 12 months:

took the girls on their first ever train ride for their first ever trip to the theatre:

and have spent several afternoons enjoying the swimming pool in the back garden:

Life is too short to be serious all the time – I’ve been reminded of that all too often recently.  So here’s to a summer of fun!

I’d love to find out about your plans for the summer, so please do feel free to leave a comment below letting me know what you’ll be up to.

 

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