Lee's blog: Those Hazy Days of Summer

“I don’t remember it ever raining in the summer when I was a child” I commented to a friend as we sat drinking coffee in hoodies and fluffy socks in what can only be described as a mild hurricane watching our children run in and out of the garden living their best life screaming in the wind and rain. “Me neither. Summer was just summer” she agreed. Now we both grew up on the east coast of Ireland so the plausibility this being a factual recollection is low and pretty laughable. I think of school summer holidays and remember long days playing in field and jumping hay bales (I grew up in the 80s in the countryside we did not have playgrounds!), riding my bike, calling for my friends, trips to the beach and sleepovers with my cousins in our grandparents house. I imagine if I spoke to my mum about the same time period she would remember trying to entertain the kids for the 8 week holiday while my dad worked, the lack of camps and day fillers that we have now, the endless demands for food, the brief break when we went to stay at our Grandparents and likely a lot of bad weather! As a mother in the 1980s my mother was not constantly pressurised by social media to be constantly “making memories” or picture perfect activities for us kids and yet that’s exactly what she did – those memories of the hazy lazy rain free summer days are my core memories.

I admittedly have been guilty of seeking out those perfect memory making moments, my social media reminding me “you only get 18 summers” (that one hit hard!) I used to take holiday productivity seriously, if I’m taking a day off work I need to be up at 6am see a sunrise, go to a gallery, discover a new park, eat out, go swimming, eat out, see the sunset to make it count as a holiday day well used! Aging and my kids have made me slow down a lot more and this summer I have maximised my annual leave to take advantage of longer weekends, reduced the number of must check activities I have scheduled, and not being too worried if the only thing we did on my day off was build a cushion fort!

I wonder what memories my kids will have of their summer days – multiple camps, trips, sleepovers with Grandparents (that ones a keeper!), the beach, playgrounds, their teacher Dad having so much time to hang out with them, playing with friends and maybe like me no rain! Will they be able to remember a marked difference between school terms and holidays like I do?

And as for my own memories I will probably remember the juggle of work and homelife when everything becomes unscheduled and you feel like you are not fully in work, not fully in parent mode and not fully in control of either! I will remember the rain and thankfully be the person who also remembers the rain jackets!

Lee is a mum, accountant, coffee lover and sometimes runner. She is married, has two young girls and works mostly remotely for a London based bank.

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• Families