“But I’m not the field trip type of mom.”

But that’s me.

Last week CTWorkingMoms revisited an oldie from 2015. It might as well be timeless because even though this mom and I differ, boy can I relate to her sentiments.

I am a teacher, so even though I work my ass off for 9ish months a year, I also get a lot of great, uninterrupted, quality time with my kids. I happen to love teaching, but I can’t argue with the perks. Getting out before 3 and having my kids for every vacation is often the only thing I can use to justify leaving them at 6:45 in the morning.

So when June comes around I switch my hat to “stay-at-home-mom” mode. My kids are 4 and almost 3 and I avoided camps again this year so that I could get as much time with them as I can. (Translation: my mom-guilt wouldn’t allow for summer or camp care. The summers aren’t for me, they are for us (scratch that, them).

In her blog Randi talked about hanging out at the house, watching a bit too much tv and reading countless books.  I always like the idea of that, honestly, “chill days,” but I can never hang.  There’s always too much to do, and too much guilt in “laying around” or “watching a couple movies” or “pigging out”.  There are rules I should follow about that. Right? (My conscience thinks so). Plus, I can’t lay around.  I am not capable, I’d have to get up and do something – many things.

So we leave, we set out on adventures, we mix in fun, free things (like traveling to different libraries and parks) with fun, expensive things (like museums, dinosaur parks and zoos).  I don’t really care as long as it gets us out of the house for a couple hours and the day at home is broken up into reasonable fragments.  This gives just enough time to play with household toys before they start looking at me for help entertaining them, because my attention span is short and I can only do that for so long.

I am sure the psychology behind this is that I feel guilty for leaving them most of the year and so when I have them I make the most of every second.  I have to be super stay-at-home-mom, not just regular great stay-at-home-mom.  Just don’t make me stay at home.

Either way, it’s time to go.  My kids are almost up and I am ready to set out on our journey for the day.  What kind of “summer” mom are you?