Sun, freedom, family time, memories. Summer is coming. Yay!
And for a lot of people, it is all those things. But not for everyone. For a lot of other families, summer is actually harder.
Routines disappear. The structure that held everything together during the school year, the schedule, the drop-off, the predictability, is gone. And for kids and parents alike, that absence lands differently than anyone expects.
Kids and teens who struggle with anxiety often have a harder time in summer, not easier. Without the predictability of a school day, anxiety has more room to move around. Boredom can look a lot like restlessness, irritability, or withdrawal. Parents see it and wonder what changed. What changed is the calendar.
“It’s summer. They should be happy.”
Maybe. But “should” is a heavy word. Kids don’t always have the language to explain that unstructured time feels overwhelming, not freeing. They just feel it.
For parents, summer brings its own weight. The mental load of figuring out childcare, activities, and supervision doesn’t take a vacation. Neither does work. The expectation that summer should feel lighter, combined with the reality that it often feels busier and more expensive, is its own kind of stress.
And then there’s the comparison. The highlight reel of beach trips and perfect summers scrolling through everyone’s phone. It’s easy to feel like you’re doing it wrong when summer looks hard instead of idyllic.
You’re not doing it wrong. Hard summers happen. Struggling kids happen. Overwhelmed parents happen. None of that means something is broken.
But if the summer shift has brought something to the surface, for you or for your child, that’s worth paying attention to. Reach out. We’re here.
Sources:
American Psychological Association. Stress in America. https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress
Child Mind Institute. Why Kids Need Routines. https://childmind.org/article/why-kids-need-routines/