I don’t know about you, but the school year went by really fast this year. How have we been through five months of 2023 and how is it already summer break?

Growing up, my dad and my stepmother both worked and I was at home with my stepbrother and stepsister. We would sleep late and then walk to the pool to work on our golden tans and sun-in bleached hair. Think Farah Fawcett, but not quite.

At some point, we had charged too many snickers bars to our parents “house account” and were told we needed to get jobs. Since I wasn’t interested in missing a day at the pool, I applied to be a lifeguard. They hired me and I still swear that there is no chance I could have saved anyone, even in the baby pool.

One morning, I had overslept and had to run a full sprint to the pool. I had a t-shirt over my bathing suit and ran barefoot as fast as I could. I wasn’t prepared and boy did that not work out. I got there just in time to take my turn in the lifeguard chair. I forgot my uniform suit and was going to have to make my bikini work for the day. As I started to climb up to the chair, I took off my t-shirt and strapped the lifeguard floatation device over my shoulder. If someone got into trouble on my watch, I knew that I couldn’t afford any spare time looking for the proper equipment. I stayed ready.

Here is where it all went wrong. In my sleepy haze, I had put on the top of my bathing suit, but not the bottoms! I was standing there, in my undies and bathing suit top, wishing I could disappear.

Instead, I grabbed a towel and climbed into that chair. On my break, I sprinted home as fast as I had sprinted there earlier that morning and grabbed my bathing suit bottoms. Here’s the thing, nobody bailed me out. My parents couldn’t leave work to come save the day. It was up to me to figure it out. I never forgot anything again the entire summer. This is where we learn, in the mistakes and mishaps that we have to get ourselves out of independently.

I’m trying to allow my kids to figure things out for themselves before saving the day. This summer, if your kiddo ends up at the pool in their undies, let them sprint home to fix it. It builds character and makes for a great story.

Happy Summer,

MG

TEA IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD