Ladies, you may have heard of the Instagrammable summer. In fact, you may even be living it as we speak. But allow me to present the case for its less advertised and criminally under-appreciated cousin: the lazy summer. Certainly less glamorous, but perhaps the unimpressive season we didn’t know we needed.
Summertime seems to bring out the best in so many moms. Beautiful, color-coordinated family portraits in exotic locales! Elaborate at-home summer camps, replete with impressive crafts! Perfectly on-trend outfits for date night! Impressive culinary spreads for the perfect summer soirée!
While all this perfection is inspiring, I must admit that sometimes, I’m just not feeling it. Sometimes, I’m too lazy for sartorial creativity and end up wearing some variation of an all-black workout ensemble all week. Sometimes, the most extravagant dinner I can muster up is take-out. Ok, who am I kidding? Delivery. And sometimes, the only child-friendly activity I have the energy for is putting on an episode of Daniel Tiger.
Did I think this would be me as a mom? No. But am I OK with it? Also no. . . I am, however, trying to be! In this season of life, I’m trying to relax my standards of productivity and heighten my capacity for relaxation, which, I’m learning is a skill in itself. There are times when I’m more than in the mood for achievement, creativity, and boundless maternal patience. And there are times when I’m not. I guess this just happens to be one of the latter.
These last couple months, I’ve found contentment in things that I usually find less than thrilling. Taking a nap, enjoying a cup of coffee while it’s still hot, and getting some time to browse through Target with its glorious A/C are all highlights of my week. Does this sound a little sad? Perhaps. But I’m really leaning into this idea of a lazy summer. And I’m starting to feel less guilty about it.
On the whole, I’m still trying to deprogram myself from the cult of overachievement that’s so prevalent in our world. I’ve felt for a while that “contentment” has taken on a negative connotation, akin to complacency. If you’ve been following for a while, you may have noticed that many of my posts discuss self-care and ways that I try to improve my day-to-day existence. But one innovation I hadn’t anticipated was just chilling out and being fine with not doing much. Others have written about this as a form of self-care, and I agree. And I guess I’m applying it to this whole season.
Even though I’m not fully comfortable with how…”relaxed” I’ve been as of late, I’m starting to enjoy it. For the first time in a while, I haven’t set any goals other than lowering my stress and upping my happiness. I’m intentionally shifting my view of productivity to include anything that lowers my cortisol. Reading a book, catching up with a friend, and getting more sleep all count.
Have you considered leaning into a lazy summer? Let me know how it’s going! And, if this all sounds a little too lazy for you, try some of these great summer activities for lazy moms!
