You Only Get 18 Summers, and other things I wish influencers would stop saying.

An influencer makes a video to remind moms you only get 19 summers with your kids, and I feel my teeth grind and the weight of a thousand expectations settle on my shoulders.

We’re having a 90s summer!, says another, and I wonder what that even means. I imagine eating microwaved pizza bagels and strapping Barbies into homemade yarn bungee cords and flinging them off the swing set. I’m not sure that’s what they had in mind.

All of it feels high pressure and high stakes. We need to make the most of this time! Be present. Make memories! Put that phone away (unless you’re recording the memories). These kids are growing up every second. You have to make summer ✨MAGICAL✨.

So, we plan a trip. We go to a cabin. We visit festivals, and go to the pool, and get ice cream, and hike.

But here’s what all those curated summer reels don’t tell you.

You will be on a boat on a spectacularly beautiful lake, and your kids will tell you they’re bored.

You’ll get to the cabin, and they’ll complain that it’s small.

The siblings will bicker…a lot. Like, so, so much.

You’ll turn off the screens and push the kids outside, but it’ll be hot, and someone will get injured or most definitely be dying of starvation within the hour, and oh, remember you still have to work to make money to afford food for the aforementioned starving children?

But also.