5 Things to Make Summer Fun For Mom with Lara Neves from Overstuffed Life — Episode 140

It is easy to have your summer revolve around your kids, but what can we do to make summer more fun for us as moms?

Today’s guest is Lara Neves from Overstuffed Life. Lara is the mom to three girls. She writes about parenting tweens & teens (even though two of her children have now graduated to adulthood), homemaking for busy moms, and how to find joy and balance in the overstuffed life mothers have to juggle.

Big thanks to our sponsor Family Routines — summer time is a GREAT time to get into a fun routine, so you get work out of the way and can enjoy time together as a family.

In this episode

How summers can go awry.

How to find the balance between structure and fun.

Good ideas for summer fun

Other things that might interest you

Lara’s other episode on kids and summer

Fun activities for teens and tweens in the summer

Teen summer reading bingo

Camping Tips from Hilary

Camping tips from Lara

Lara’s Post on Girls Getaways

Producer: Drew Erickson

Check out my other parenting podcasts:

Transcript

[00:00:00.130] – Hilary Erickson

Hey, guys, welcome back to The Pulling Curls Podcast. Today on episode 140, we’re talking about girls who just want to have fun. How do you make your summer fun even though you have kids? Let’s untangle it.

[00:00:21.690] – Hilary Erickson

Hi, I’m Hilary Erickson, the curly head behind the Pulling Curls Podcast. We untangle pregnancy, parenting, home, and even travel. We know there’s no right answer for every family, but hopefully we can spark some ideas that will work for yours. Life tangled just like my hair.

[00:00:43.810] – Hilary Erickson

Hey, guys, before we get started, could you just take a look and see how long it’s been since I got a review? Because it’s really hurting my feelings. That is all. Please leave one. Thank you.

[00:00:51.360] – Hilary Erickson

Today’s guest is pretty much the reason why Pulling Curls Podcast what it is today. I mean, Besides all of my hard work, but I’ve known her since our kids started kindergarten. We were really good friends. I met her through online scrapbooking. She is the owner at Overstuff Life. I want to introduce my friend Laura Neves.

[00:01:13.550] – Hilary Erickson

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[00:01:50.970] – Hilary Erickson

Hey, Laura. Welcome back to The Pulling Curls Podcast.

[00:01:53.650] – Laura Neves

Hi, Hilary.

[00:01:54.430] – Hilary Erickson

So we were just saying Laura’s a summer expert. She talked to us about summer reading before. And this time we’re going to talk about mom having fun during the summer, too. But I was like she was saying she has so much snow at her house right now, it’s recording early in the year.

[00:02:08.730] – Laura Neves

Yes, it’s a lot of snow we have. And it’s negative 15 degrees right here, right now. Today I think it’s going to be 72.

[00:02:16.380] – Hilary Erickson

I think we’re at your summer right now.

[00:02:19.260] – Laura Neves

Yeah. Basically, you are, which sounds wonderful.

[00:02:23.340] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. I would take this all year round, too. Okay. So it’s so easy to be like, I’ve got a summer plan. My kids are going to have so much fun. But then sometimes mom gets left out of the equation. Right? Like, you’re like, let’s do crafts every day. And then you’re like, I hate crafts.

[00:02:40.410] – Laura Neves

Right. Well, I think that a lot of times as Moms and I did this and I’m like, we’re going to have this great summer. We’re going to structure it. And on my blog, I have a lot of these ideas for these structured summers have a library day and do these crabs and summer reading is big at my house and all of those things. But yeah, a lot of times it ends up being maybe too structured, and mom ends up feeling tired and annoyed by everything. And sometimes then we let it all go, and that doesn’t work either. So it’s really important that we make sure mom is enjoying herself during the summer as well.

[00:03:15.850] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah, because they’re always like, you only get 18 summers with those kids, right? I hate that sprays.

[00:03:20.610] – Laura Neves

Yeah. But I think we get more because my College girls have been coming home for summer. Right.

[00:03:27.450] – Hilary Erickson

That’s true.

[00:03:28.040] – Laura Neves

Don’t listen to it. But it’s true. If you want to enjoy your summer, you have to as a mom, enjoy it, because then if we’re not enjoying it, why would we be enjoying our kids?

[00:03:37.140] – Hilary Erickson

Exactly. Because you won’t have fun. And I tend to start out really structured, and I know every year that it’s going to just entropy will take effect. And by the time school starts, it will look very different than it did at the beginning. And I’m okay with that. I know that that’s how it’s going to go, right. And my kids know that, too.

[00:03:58.060] – Laura Neves

Yeah, that’s okay, too. And maybe that’s good to try to have a plan. I think for me, the best thing that I’ve done in the summer is we sit down at the beginning of the summer as a family, and we make a big old bucket list. What does everybody want to do this summer? What would you like to do? We write it on a big poster. Somebody might want to go do a day trip to the town 2 hours away and go shopping there or whatever. Another person might want to make sure we go to the beach. Another person might just want to go to the local place where you paint the ceramics, things like that, or whatever it is. And we come up with, I don’t know, there’s usually like 40 or 50 things on that list. Do we do them all? No, but I think that’s good. And mom should put her stuff on that list, too. What does mom want to do this summer?

[00:04:42.640] – Hilary Erickson

What if you just want to sit in your room alone?

[00:04:45.150] – Laura Neves

Well, that was one thing I was going to say. I think that Moms need to regarding that you can have the family bucket list. What are you going to do as a family? But Moms need to write down what do I want to do this summer just for me, by myself, without kids, without husband, without anybody. And yeah, things on that list for me sleep in. I don’t get to sleep in during the school year, and I am not a morning person. I know, Hillary, that may be sleeping doesn’t matter to you, but I need to sleep in the summer. And so I’m not going to schedule things that are some bright and early thing every day that doesn’t happen for us in the summer. I want to sleep in. I want to read more books. I want to do whatever it is I want to do by myself. And then you can move into what do I want to do with just my husband? Because that’s important, too. And then what do I want to do with my friends? Because being with your friends is important as well. And as your kids get older, you can do more without them.

[00:05:41.500] – Laura Neves

I know when they’re really little at home on the summer, that’s a little tougher. But you could arrange playdates with your friends so that you can be doing something with your friends. And hopefully the kids are a little bit more occupied with their friends.

[00:05:53.120] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. So Laura and I both have kids that are older at this point. Like, we could just leave our kids and they would assist. They’re fine on their own. So Laura and I both have kids that are older. All of our kids are older, but we were friends when our kids were little and we were in the trenches of the summer. So just to give you an idea where we’re coming from, this is all in our past. There is no summer plan for me this summer. I have one home.

[00:06:18.580] – Laura Neves

No, I only have one at home, too. And she’s like, she’ll be 16 this summer. She’s already lived Huckleberry Finn life in the summer, which is great. So it’s good.

[00:06:27.950] – Hilary Erickson

I think it’s important for moms to realize that so much of our lives if you have kids in school now, if you home school, then this is probably a different story. But so much of our lives revolves around the school activities and to give ourselves that break in the summer, right?

[00:06:40.900] – Laura Neves

Yes.

[00:06:41.510] – Hilary Erickson

Because not only is it kids just not having homework, it’s just so nice to not have a routine and to feel the joy of that. You don’t need to Marshal everyone into a routine, although I have been guilty of that before.

[00:06:53.320] – Laura Neves

Me, too. And then I started to realize and maybe it was more important when they were little to have something of a routine because they get a lot more bored when they’re younger. So maybe that is more important then, but it’s still important that you’re enjoying yourself and not feeling like, oh, my gosh, today is library day, and I really don’t want to go to the library. Well, then don’t go to the library if you don’t want to go as the mom, if that seems too overwhelming to you, do something else with your kids or just let them invite some friends over and let them go and you read your book at home instead of having to go to the library and worry about them or whatever it is.

[00:07:27.470] – Hilary Erickson

And I would say the things that you are going to schedule in should definitely be things that you’re either up to doing right? Maybe we do crafts once a week. I can do them once a week, but I definitely cannot tolerate paint daily. I’m not that mom or glitter.

[00:07:40.350] – Laura Neves

Right? No glitter.

[00:07:41.590] – Hilary Erickson

Glitter glue once a month.

[00:07:42.610] – Laura Neves

Glitter. Glitter. Never. I still find glitter in my house from the few times we’ve ever used it. It’s a mistake.

[00:07:51.410] – Hilary Erickson

Glitter is always a mistake. We went to the library every week because our library had a really fun thing where the moms got to kind of sit in the back and they had an activity for little kids, and then my older kids got to go out and pick books. So it made it a nice activity that everyone could really enjoy on their level.

[00:08:06.700] – Laura Neves

Yeah. And whatever it is, because sometimes the weather is going to impact your plans. If you plan to go hiking and is a thunderstorm. Well, you’re not going hiking, so just be flexible, be adaptable, and don’t get to put out when things don’t work. And I think that makes it better as a mom. And I really do think that the idea of making sure you have things that, you know, you want to do during the summer and you make this a top priority. It helps. The self care is important. I think as moms, we are constantly putting our basic needs very last. We don’t, especially when our kids are little. But even now I sometimes do that one kid at home and she’s pretty busy, but I don’t see her that often. But even now, like, if she needs something, I’m like, jump to it and do what she needs and sometimes put whatever I had on the docket second or third or on the back burner because my kid needs me. And I think we need to be aware that we’re doing that too much sometimes and take care of ourselves, whatever that looks like for you.

[00:09:08.360] – Laura Neves

Remembering that self care isn’t self comfort necessarily like binge watching Netflix while you’re eating all the ice cream in the freezer. That’s really not taking care of yourself. You might need it after a day with all your kids, but make sure you’re doing the basic self care thing. Getting enough sleep, getting enough exercise for you, eating right, which is not eating all the ice cream in the freezer as much as you want to. And I think then you’re in a better place mentally, physically, emotionally than to deal with your kids all day during the summer.

[00:09:39.410] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. I think food can be a really big thing during the summer because sometimes we end up just eating crap. Right. Also because I’m out of my routine of like, going to the grocery store every Friday, because that’s not part of our summer routine, you know what I’m saying? So we just either my kids have eaten all the food that happens, or I’m buying more snacks or I’m eating more snacks. Are you buying you the healthy things that you like. I love Avocado. So am I keeping Avocado in the house where that’s a healthy option versus Ben and Jerry’s, right.

[00:10:11.070] – Laura Neves

So, yeah, just be aware of those things. And it’s true. Our routines totally flip in the summer, and sometimes it takes a little bit of, I don’t know, trial and error to get back into an equilibrium that really works where we’re not just completely digressing into lumps of lazyness because that’s easy for the kids, too. And that’s why we want to have our summer schedule. That’s why his moms were like, I can’t let my child play Xbox all day. They’ve got to get up and do something and be productive human. We have to have fun. We have to make the most of summer. But there’s a balance.

[00:10:45.000] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. And it’s sometimes hard to find.

[00:10:46.620] – Laura Neves

I will say usually.

[00:10:47.510] – Hilary Erickson

Like the weekend before school started, I just was like, whatever, it’s for the flies at this house, you could complain. Whatever device. As long as we’ve gone along and done lots of reading and done lots of activities that last week before school, I’m just like, get out of kids.

[00:11:02.350] – Laura Neves

You just get in there.

[00:11:04.710] – Hilary Erickson

Which all day, right? Yeah. Do you have any good activities that you found enjoyable as a mom? Mine was definitely the library when my kids were little because we could all enjoy it. It was free. That was a budget was a serious issue, and it’s a serious issue for a lot of people. I think we all look at Instagram and we’re like everyone’s on a trip every single week. And that’s not true, especially when your kids are little.

[00:11:25.760] – Laura Neves

Right. And the library, definitely. We did the library a lot when they were younger. I think most libraries have really good summer programs, and so ours did, too. And we can walk to the library from our house. And so that was always nice. We would always walk and head to the library. That was always fun because then they find new books and they come home. And usually library days, they’re happy to read for a little bit after we get back. And that’s great. So library is a big one. Where I live, I live on Lake Superior, so we would always go to the Lake every week, at least once, if not more. So go to the beach. I know that’s not something that everybody can do in their summer, but finding local nature, things to do that are easy and accessible and free. Again, if budget is an issue, we would just go to the beach for a day or go hiking, go explore the waterfalls in the area, things like that. A lot of times it’s just easy to walk down to the beach that’s just right here. Or we would drive to one that’s nicer.

[00:12:24.750] – Laura Neves

And then as my kids got a little older, they could just walk down to the beach themselves with friends. And that’s nice. Too. But yeah, we go kayaking every summer, sometimes just going on a walk with your kids every day. And then the things that at home crafts. My kids never really wanted to do the craft day that much.

[00:12:41.780] – Hilary Erickson

I have one that loves to craft.

[00:12:44.050] – Laura Neves

God bless her. We would sometimes family movie night. And in the summer it’s nice because you don’t have to wait till Friday, like Wednesdays family movie night, make pizza and popcorn, and we choose a movie and watch that or just fun things like that that you can make into the routine. But I feel like at least where I live, it’s very nature. There’s so much to do outside that we try to do a lot of that during the summer. And I know where you live. That’s not Arizona because I used to live where you live. So it’s harder here.

[00:13:16.160] – Hilary Erickson

We definitely did pool days and you can’t really bring your switch to the pool. So that makes it nice to have screens because of the water. But usually every area and then also ask on Facebook because when we moved here, I had little kids and I was like, what are the day trips? Because you just don’t know. And a lot of times other moms know really simple ones that aren’t going to mom with three little kids does not want to go on a twelve mile hike for sure. No, she wants a nature walk.

[00:13:43.380] – Laura Neves

No, thanks. Right.

[00:13:45.320] – Hilary Erickson

Other moms are great options for what’s available in your area or look on the Internet. Yeah. You guys went camping, right?

[00:13:53.320] – Laura Neves

Oh, yeah. We go camping every summer. We try to go camping. We have a lot of good places for that. And camping.

[00:13:59.870] – Hilary Erickson

I will say that I was not up for camping, but there came a point in my life that was the budget option for doing something as a family. And I ended up having a really good time doing it. We definitely had to simplify. I think Laura and I have camping ones on our website. I’ll link to those about like.

[00:14:15.560] – Laura Neves

I feel like camping. Camping is one thing that I think it’s not my favorite thing. But you’re right. Every time I go, we have a lot of fun and depending on where you can again, there’s a lot to do and see. And so it’s just a nice way to get away. And you have to get away from screens because there’s no way, there’s no service there. And it’s nice.

[00:14:36.090] – Hilary Erickson

And we’ve gone with other families. We’ve gone alone. Both have been good. And we definitely load up on the trashy snack food before we go. But you’re moving your body so much, you’re walking everywhere. It’s not like Hostess will kill you because of your otherwise sedentary life, right? Yeah. I think it’s so easy to forget about yourself when you’re planning summer with little kids because you’re just like, what are we going to do? And I definitely had an educational routine in the mornings where we did worksheets or science experiments where we really tried to do learning things in the morning, at least for the first few weeks of the summer. And then, like I said, it would degrade as the summer went on. But I think my kids learned a lot together and we had a good time. And I’m that mom. I am the worksheet mom. I love doing flashcards with little kids sticker books and worksheets. That’s what I enjoy, which is probably why they were integral to our summers.

[00:15:24.940] – Laura Neves

Well, and if that’s what you love, then that’s great. If that idea just makes you want to kill yourself, then don’t do it. But your kids will be fine. When they were little, I had worksheets and workbooks and things like that. But as I got a little older, most of us, I would just have a little thing that was like, okay, you can be on your phone as much as you want as long as you have exercise, read a little bit, done your chores, and I give them minimal chores during the summer. It’s clean your room. And one other thing, maybe we’re home enough and it’s not that bad. They can do a little bit and then they can go do whatever they want. And sometimes that is playing Xbox all day. Okay, I don’t love that. But if they’ve done what I asked them to do, then it’s fine. And then I have my time, too.

[00:16:13.780] – Hilary Erickson

Xbox is when it’s your time.

[00:16:15.720] – Laura Neves

Yeah, exactly. Because then I can read my book or whatever.

[00:16:18.560] – Hilary Erickson

I think that’s a good idea, though, because if you’re doing a lot of family activities, you may need the kids, especially if they’re older, to kick up their housework game. And again, it’s not like, let’s spend 6 hours cleaning. It’s just like, hey, can you wipe down the tub?

[00:16:30.690] – Laura Neves

Right? Exactly. That’s what I would do. I would just ask them to do one or two things easy every day, and that’s enough to upkeep in the summer. Yeah, sure. Good idea.

[00:16:39.600] – Hilary Erickson

And you had a great reading plan. I know you were on talking about reading before, but I think reading is a great time to really explore that. Just read whatever you want, but just read.

[00:16:47.940] – Laura Neves

Yeah. So I give my kids a bin of books on the first day of summer. We have a huge library at home because reading is something I’m really passionate about. So I just go through and pick books out of what we already have that I think they would like that. I know they haven’t read yet. Plus I end up buying one or two more that I think they would like for the summer. And I give them just like a box of their books for the summer. If they want to read them those books, that’s great. If they don’t get to them all, it’s not something that I force them to do. Or anything. It’s just like here it’s the presence of books, and they love that. And they read them usually, maybe only on rainy days or things nowadays, but they’ll read them. But yeah, books reading. So that was kind of a thing. Like I said now I don’t do anything for them over the summer, but we’re just here now.

[00:17:36.190] – Hilary Erickson

Lord of the Flies.

[00:17:37.020] – Laura Neves

Every day you have to read for half an hour before you get your screen time. They were perfectly fine with that. And usually they read for more than a half an hour. So it’s fine. Great.

[00:17:47.090] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. And I think I tried to show my kids it’s so different than what it is during the school year because during the school year you had to read whatever your teacher said. And it’s just the joy out of it.

[00:17:57.910] – Laura Neves

Takes the joy out of reading sometimes.

[00:18:00.750] – Hilary Erickson

And when you’re going to the library so often, a lot of times we would explore the old what is it, Dewey Decimal System, where we’d be like, okay, today we’re going to hit the 500 and just see what there is in the 500s.

[00:18:11.280] – Laura Neves

That’s fine.

[00:18:11.830] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. Because a lot of times my kids would be like, oh, I want to learn about Korea. And I’d be like, I don’t.

[00:18:16.810] – Laura Neves

But okay, right. Yeah. I remember my daughter who has a terrible fear of spiders. She checked out every book that she could find on spiders one day in the summer, and she spent her summer reading about spiders. Like, why are you doing that? She’s like, so I can get over my fear. Like, okay, great.

[00:18:33.180] – Hilary Erickson

That’s like me following plane captains on TikTok.

[00:18:40.410] – Laura Neves

Somehow it helps face those stairs.

[00:18:43.420] – Hilary Erickson

Any tips for moms on vacation? Because I think, well, first off, I think you have to have the expectation that it’s the trip, especially if you’re taking small children. It is not a vacation. It is the time to make memories. And those often take effort by mom.

[00:18:56.360] – Laura Neves

I think the best thing for moms on vacation, and I think we all fall into this getting so stressed, trying to have everything prepared and ready and then going and trying to wrangle everybody to have fun and forcing fun. This is my get extra stressed about it. I’m like yelling at them that we have to go have fun. I feel like when I’m just more laid back and I follow their lead and remember to talk to them, what are we going to do today? I don’t know if we’re in Chicago, for instance. That’s where we go a lot just because it’s driving distance. And what are we going to do today? What do you guys want to do today? And make sure they know they’re part of the planning. So it’s not like mom saying this is what we’re doing and having complaining kids dragging their feet. If they say they don’t want to leave the hotel room until ten, then we’re not going to leave until ten. There’s no reason to push. We’ll all have more funds that way. And I think that’s the most important thing for mom. Stop stressing so much that everything has to be a certain way on vacation.

[00:19:52.270] – Laura Neves

And then also just make sure your kids and your husband know that you do get stressed. If you have to do all the things, remind your kids, hey, if you’re staying in a hotel room, make sure you’re picking up your stuff and putting it back in your area so that the hotel room doesn’t look like a bomb went off every morning when we leave. Or if you’re camping, same thing. Make sure you’re in charge of your own space. And that way everybody is more happy, especially mom’s not going to be yelling at you all the day to clean up or feeling resentful that she’s cleaning up everybody else’s stuff. I mean, these are the trucks that I fall into anyway. But I think that everybody needs to realize that we are all in charge of our own fun and mom can’t be in charge of everything. So if they want to do something, we need to talk about it as a family and they need to take care of their own selves a little bit. I know when they’re tiny, that’s a little harder sometimes that feels so long ago, I don’t know, I don’t remember.

[00:20:42.410] – Laura Neves

But still, the same thing if you teach them when they’re little, hey, keep your stuff in here. This is your space for your things in the hotel room or the tent or wherever we are. And I guess that’s the thing I get the most stressed about. But otherwise, just have fun. If stuff doesn’t. If you don’t end up going to see whatever Museum, that’s okay. Just roll with the punches a little bit better instead of getting stressed that you have to be on a schedule. And I think that’s the thing for summer, for vacations. Moms, we get all stressed about having to keep a schedule. Nobody says that you’re putting that stress on yourself. There is no person above you saying you must do all of these things. If you go to Chicago, if you don’t hit the science center, then you are a terrible person. You know, your kids have missed out. No, it’s okay. If that’s what you miss, that’s what you miss. It’s fine.

[00:21:31.420] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah.

[00:21:32.550] – Laura Neves

Focus on the fun and enjoying the moment.

[00:21:34.380] – Hilary Erickson

And the good news is someday you’ll be a whole grown up that can go to Chicago on your own and go to the art museums on your own.

[00:21:42.360] – Laura Neves

Exactly.

[00:21:43.160] – Hilary Erickson

Do things the way you want to do them because you’re only at home for so long. Laura and I can say this now because we’re out of the theme, but there is going to come a point in time where you will be able to visit these cities and do the things that you want to do, like you want to do them. And it’s just different than when you take your kids.

[00:21:59.030] – Laura Neves

So focus on your kids, I guess, on vacation if they want to stay for 10 hours at the American Girl Doll store, even though that sounds not so fun to you.

[00:22:07.960] – Hilary Erickson

Just enjoy it or make a compromise.

[00:22:09.960] – Laura Neves

Let’s just make it five, right? Yeah. We spend a lot of time at the American Girl also, I have three girls, all girls. So that was a big Chicago thing. They wanted to do that more than they ever wanted to go to any of the science museums.

[00:22:25.530] – Hilary Erickson

But that’s your memory, right?

[00:22:27.080] – Laura Neves

Yeah.

[00:22:27.470] – Hilary Erickson

And it’s probably a funeral memory than it would be if you drag them to the art Museum.

[00:22:31.250] – Laura Neves

It’s true. Well, they did love the art museums, the science Museum they never wanted to go to anyway. Yeah.

[00:22:38.600] – Hilary Erickson

I always say with Disneyland, I’m like you have to decide what your goal is before you go to Disneyland. Is it to ride all the rides? Because some people do go to Disneyland with that being their goal. But then they need to realize that it’s not going to be as fun because their goal wasn’t fun. It was literally just to ride the ride.

[00:22:53.540] – Laura Neves

That’s kind of stressful, actually, to try to ride all the rides. Yeah. And so I think that’s important. You ask your kids, what do you want to do on this trip? And then everybody feels like they got to do their thing. And as long as you include Mom, mom wants to go to whatever, even if it’s just I want to eat at this restaurant or I want to make sure I go to the sides Museum, then include yourself in those goals and try to hit everybody in the family. Yeah.

[00:23:18.290] – Hilary Erickson

And I think it’s important to remind kids because I think kids have a sense of fairness that they had their time at the American Girl Doll store. And this is Mom’s time. We’re going to this restaurant. And I think kids are like, okay, I need to just make it through Mom’s restaurant. I can do this if they’re older than five. If they’re under three, everything’s a crapshoot. And we wish you the best, but you’re not going to be in that stage forever, even if you feel like you are.

[00:23:40.700] – Laura Neves

No. Yeah.

[00:23:41.960] – Hilary Erickson

And I do have friends who have just left the toddler’s home.

[00:23:44.920] – Laura Neves

Yes. And that’s okay.

[00:23:46.160] – Hilary Erickson

They leave the toddlers with Grandma. And Grandma really enjoys having one on one time with the smallest one. And then they take the older on a trip where the older kids will remember. And if that sounds more appealing to you, maybe you can work that right.

[00:23:56.900] – Laura Neves

Because we’re talking about Mom’s fun. And I think if you want to go to Chicago, go to Chicago with your friends, your girlfriends instead, and find places to leave your kids for a weekend. It’s the summer. You can still do that if you want to do a little girl’s trip or just with your husband and overnight some weekend somewhere? Go ahead and do that. Don’t feel bad just because it’s the summer and you need to be spending every second with your kids or everything needs to be a family deal. Yeah.

[00:24:25.640] – Hilary Erickson

And it can be easier to swap those weekends with friends during the summer.

[00:24:28.770] – Laura Neves

Yeah, exactly.

[00:24:31.090] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah, I agree.

[00:24:32.270] – Laura Neves

And honestly, your kids will be perfectly happy to go play with their friends for a weekend. That usually seems fun to them. They don’t care.

[00:24:40.260] – Hilary Erickson

And a quick plug that girls trips are so much cheaper than a family vacation.

[00:24:44.410] – Laura Neves

Oh, yes.

[00:24:46.450] – Hilary Erickson

This is so cheap compared to taking my whole family.

[00:24:48.950] – Laura Neves

Yeah, that is a really good thing. I have a post about girls weekends or girls trips on a couple of posts I think on my blog too. But it is it’s a lot cheaper because you don’t have to be paying for the whole family to do everything. You’re just paying for yourself and you get to do a lot of the things you might want to do with your family but they don’t want to do or it would be harder with kids. Plus, it’s cheaper. You’re still eating at your favorite restaurant but you don’t have to pay for six people or four people. You’re paying for one. Yeah.

[00:25:14.480] – Hilary Erickson

And you split the hotel costs. A lot of times you split transportation costs with other people. So it can be really affordable if you do it right.

[00:25:21.500] – Laura Neves

Exactly. I agree.

[00:25:22.800] – Hilary Erickson

Well, a lot of times adult things are pretty darn cheap. Depends. Yeah, that’s true. All right. Thanks so much, Laura. I hope this gave mom some ideas to fit them into their summer. I think that’s something we can all work towards.

[00:25:36.950] – Laura Neves

Yes. Thanks for having me.

[00:25:38.800] – Hilary Erickson

Hopefully you guys enjoyed that episode. I think it’s so good to not forget yourself and all these planning things. I think we get so caught up in planning for our kids that it doesn’t do us any favors. So thanks for coming on, Lara and definitely check out the post in the show notes.

[00:25:53.410] – Hilary Erickson

I think there’s a lot of good ideas for summers if you guys are looking for them and don’t miss next week’s episode is on how to get your confidence birth with an online prenatal class graduate. And if you’re not interested in pregnancy the week after that, we’re actually talking about organizing your house to get ready for summer, so stay tuned.

[00:26:09.110] – Hilary Erickson

Thanks so much for joining us on today’s episode. We know you have lots of options for your ears and we are glad that you chose us. We drop episodes weekly. And until next time, we hope you have a tangle free day.