It’s the end of August. The time of year when I start to feel guilty about all the things we didn’t do this summer. The water park we didn’t go to, the beach days we didn’t have, the places we didn’t visit.
This summer the guilt is worse than usual because this summer I was working full-time and while I had these rose-colored expectations of sitting poolside with my laptop. The reality is that only happened once. Instead, we spent a lot more time at home that I had planned. There was a lot more time spent watching TV than there was reading or writing or riding bikes.
Usually, I feel this rush of guilt in the last weeks of August. This feeling like if I just fill these last few days of summer with something that it can make up for the last few weeks.
But this year I’m not allowing the guilt to swallow me. I’m not going to let it have me viewing this summer as a failure. I’m not going to sit around and feel sorry for what could have been. I’m not going to try to stuff so much into these last few days of August (ok I may still try to do some of that).
Just because we didn’t do everything on our bucket list, doesn’t mean it still wasn’t a great summer. Just because we didn’t fill our summer with big adventures doesn’t mean that there weren’t wonderful small moments this summer. Just because this summer wasn’t perfectly filtered and shared all over social media doesn’t mean it wasn’t memorable. Just because it wasn’t one of those 18 delicious summers that was filling my Facebook feed in June doesn’t mean that it wasn’t good in its own way.
As moms, we easily fill ourselves with guilt. It’s easy to focus on all we didn’t do as opposed to all the things we did do. But I’m going to focus on the things we did this summer. On the time spent at the pool and the weekend morning when the whole family cuddled in bed. I’m going to remember the last-minute trip to NYC to see toys and the trips to the movies.
It’s not about what you put on a list to do this summer. It’s about what you did and the memories you made.
Leave a Reply