Summer Survival with Teens

How to loosely structure your summer for maximum enjoyment

Summer is around the corner and with the kids off from school you know it’s only a matter of time before the complaints start rolling in:

I’m bored

There’s no food

There’s nothing to do

I’m hungry

No one is around to hang out

Not to worry, I’m here with some ideas to help stave off the uncertainty and boredom so you and your kids can have a nice, leisurely summer.

Have a loose schedule

The main thing I look forward to when summer starts is NOT having that super early school schedule. I’m a big fan of sleeping in and so are my kids. That being said, we need a schedule of some sort, or the entire day is off. Kids (and adults) thrive on schedules. It makes for less complaining and grumbling if they know what is expected of them and the roundabout times those things are supposed to happen.

My teens go to bed way later than I do. They are up all hours of the night on the computer or video gaming. That’s why it is important to me that they get to sleep in.

My oldest, however, would sleep well into the afternoon if I let him. Therefore, I am making a rule that he has to be up, dressed and eat something between noon and 1pm. A loose schedule that makes sure he doesn’t sleep all day but also allows for him to get enough sleep.

He has a job this summer, then daily chores & piano practice. In addition, I’m making him exercise and go outside each day. He tends to be a hermit and barely leaves his room, so this is something I have to prod him to do.

Your kids will have other challenges, so figure out what those are and try to implement solutions.

Communicate expectations and schedule at the beginning of the summer & monitor throughout

Before the summer starts, we will be sitting down as a family and discussing our expectations for the summer. During the discussion, I will ask my kids for their input on chores and things they want to do this summer. I will try to continue to have the meetings on a weekly basis to keep everyone informed of the plans for the week ahead.

It is my hope that with a family that has a loose schedule and is aware of expectations and plans, we can all be on the same page and cut out that nonsense of wasted summer days, miscommunications, double-booking, etc.

Discuss what to do in case of boredom

Now that I have teens, I’m no longer the play-date arranger, activities director or social calendar keeper. That’s not to say I don’t plan fun things for me and my kids to do, it’s just that those times are a lot fewer and far between nowadays. It’s more typical that my kids come and tell ME what’s going on for the day and how I have to drive them and give them money. It’s a real great time!

There are those times when their friends are on vacation, or no one is around that they can get sucked into a 4-hour Fortnite binge or spend all day shut in their rooms. That’s OK sometimes, but when you need them to get out and shake the dust off it helps to come up with some ideas together for when boredom strikes.

Here is a list of fun things teens can do for when they come to you with ‘I’m bored.’

Make a plan for meals & snacks

I can’t discuss summer survival with teens without mentioning FOOD.

Anyone who’s ever had a hungry teen in their house knows, there’s never enough food. I don’t know about you, but I despise everything about managing the food in our house. The food shopping, the deciding on what to cook, the constant struggle between feeding my kids healthy and putting SOMETHING in their bellies, monitoring how often we eat out vs. how often I cook at home and of course THE DISHES! It’s exhausting! With two teen boys and their neighborhood buddies around all the time, it’s enough to make you want to run away to a deserted island and never come back.

I have all this mom guilt about them eating junk, but I simply do not have the time & patience to deal with what it takes to monitor their food in the summer. I can’t. I won’t.

However, I do feel like if I have a plan to keep the house stocked with ready-to-eat, healthy foods, I can leave it to them to grab what’s in there and eat without any input from me. I hope it can also be a jumping off point for you to get your food situation under control as well.

• I’m planning out meals for the week
• I’m letting people know what’s in the fridge
• I’m buying less junk
• I’m meal prepping
• I’m keeping healthy things ready to go in the fridge

Planning meals

Along with having a loose schedule and everyone knowing what is happening each day this summer, I should have a better handle on how many days and which days it will be feasible for my family to sit down for dinner. With that information, I should be able to plan my meals accordingly. I will do my best to plan easy, crowd-pleasing meals that can accommodate extra guests and any leftovers will be added to my fridge list for lunches or dinners later in the week.

What’s in the fridge

For some reason, the men in my house cannot see what’s in the fridge. It’s like they don’t have eyes or something? I don’t understand it. This means a lot of things go to waste because no one eats what’s not directly in front of their face. To solve this problem, I stuck a magnetic dry erase board on the fridge with a list of all the foods available so everyone is aware of what there is to eat.

Less Junk

The less junk I buy, the less junk my kids eat? Can this be true? I hope so. But with Mr. Softee driving by my house on the daily the least I can do is to not have extra crap in my house for the kids to ruin their dinners with.

Meal Prep

This is the solution I’m most excited about. I’ve always wanted to be one of those meal prepping people who have healthy meals planned out for the week. This summer I’m making it happen. I seem to never have time to make dinner at actual dinner time in the summer. This is why meal prepping is going to be my saving grace. If I prep the meals earlier in the day, I can have food ready to go when everyone is hungry and not have to order out to save the time.

Ready to Go

Once I’ve meal prepped, I should have healthy grab & go stuff to eat in the fridge. I’ll put it on the list and everyone will know what’s available to eat. We spend a lot of time at the community pool during the summer so I plan to purchase more food containers to keep pre-portioned lunches and snacks available for us to bring along to the pool. Then, when we get home from the pool, there will be food available to heat up for dinner.

I hope this gave you some ideas and inspiration for summer survival with your teens and keep them busy and fed this summer without going crazy. Post a comment below with some of your advice and ideas on how to have a stress-free summer with teens. I’d love to hear from you!

Recommendations

Note: The links below are my Amazon Affiliate links. I receive a small commission for any purchases made from these links. However, I will never recommend items I have not personally used myself or had experience with in some capacity.

These are the perfect meal prepping containers and they are plastic so they are pool-friendly. I prefer to store my food in glass containers. However, glass is not allowed at the pool. In addition, if you want to use them for packing kids’ lunches, plastic is the way to go. They are BPA free, dishwasher, freezer & microwave safe.

Now for glass meal prepping containers. These are great for around the house. I don’t microwave plastic, so I would most likely use the plastic containers for cold-to-go meals. These glass ones would stay home to use for heating up dinners.

If you need an inexpensive dry erase board for the fridge, this one comes with markers. It is the perfect size to let your family know what you have to eat.