Summer has arrived and family and work are shifting from the regular school routine to summer’s varied schedule of activities and vacation. The routine aspect of summer is that there is no routine. Each week brings a new mixture of in and out of town, camps and friends. All of this is fun, but with the fun comes less structure and sleep along with more junk food and sun. This could mean that children may be more irritable, demanding and prone to fight with their siblings. Summer means that for each person, every day is an adjustment to a new schedule to be juggled and accommodated.

Parents can lower stress by being aware of summer turmoil and not trying to fight it. Rather than pressing oneself to accomplish more; take a slower pace by letting go of expectations of achieving a lot. Take a vacation from some of the never-ending list of “things to do.” It may be that at the top of the “to do” list is “surviving” the summer. Parents can take credit for being with children emotionally as well as physically. This may translate into more interaction between parents and children. Thirty minutes a day of fun—board games, playing in the pool, - without TV, friends or phone calls, will translate into a lot of compliance from children and make summer flow more smoothly.