When buying a house in November, not having central air conditioning might seem like not a big deal. But it is. It is a big deal.
Swim lessons are only fun for those children who already know how to swim. All others—including the instructors and parents—simply endure.
Children who make it through an entire school day without eating more than lunch cannot survive an hour without a snack during the summer. Snacks do not include fruit or vegetables. Snacks are carb-only unless there is only one strawberry/yogurt/string cheese/insert-other somewhat-healthy-snack-option-here and two children are hungry.
Ice cream makes everything better. The children seem to enjoy it, too.
A child who upon being woken every single school day grumbles “Why? Why?”, will pop out of bed by 7 a.m. every day during the summer. Every. Single. Day.
The randomly timed 20-minute stretch of adults-only swim time in the community pool always will commence the moment your tired, sweaty crew approaches the edge of the oasis. Those 20-minutes will be the longest of your life.
Bug bites, sunburns and hives. Oh my!
Accomplishing anything during a heat wave is a minor miracle. This includes preparing meals, doing laundry and most especially actual someday-you-might-get-paid work. Exceptions: scooping ice cream. (See No. 4)
When you don’t have air conditioning, you might discover all sorts of reasons to go grocery shopping. And your children won’t even complain.
Every once in a while, you will remember that you don’t have to be at the bus stop by a certain time. You don’t have to have dinner at just the right time so as to allow for homework completion. You don’t have a whole lot of “have tos” at all. So you can grab the sidewalk chalk. You can blow some bubbles. You can head to the pool. You can enjoy yourself and your children. You can work later. *
*But you do need to it eventually. Seriously.