Eziaha Bolaji-Olojo: Dear Domestic Queen, Ready for Summer?

I know summer is not a Naija term, but I love how we just use it like it came from our village.

So summer’s here and everyone is going on vacation. In fact, I was doing A-OK, until I realised that I may be the only one who is not travelling after I checked Instagram out. I saw some really cool vacation and airport pictures, and just before I started to believe them and put myself under pressure to travel with my kids, I received sense. Amen!

So while summer’s here, school’s out, and a lot of people are free, don’t even feel a tad bad if you cannot travel out, too. There’s a time for everything, and if you cannot afford it now, hey, there is hope for tomorrow.

While we are here in Nigeria and at home, I have a few suggestions for my stay-at-home moms to help us rock out the summer season now that the kids are home. Some of them unconventional, but we will be okay.

First, find a project for you and your kids.

You see, idleness is just wrong. These weeks are one to invest time and emotions into building stronger bonds with your kids. A well-defined project will really help, and it can be academic, social or creative in nature. Or a good mix of all. Don’t feel bad if it is academic, especially seeing as your kid has been in school the past three or so months. This summer may be a great time to strengthen the weak areas in their academic life, especially if you do not want to go the way of Summer school, which by the way I have no issues with.

For my first son, one of our academic projects would be strengthening his pencil grip and handwriting. Somehow, he aces all his papers, but his handwriting always comes back weak. This summer, we take down that giant.

For my second son, who is a southpaw, that is, a lefty, while I discovered it very early, I have had issues guiding him to write with it, and it often leads to frustration. I must admit I even stopped bothering with his homework (sorry class teacher). This summer, however, I will be more intentional with Google and YouTube so I learn just how to navigate writing with a southpaw, strong-willed child. Pray for me.

Academics aside, I also have social goals for my kids, and this will involve me taking them to a couple of my friends’ houses who have kids, so they can interact and play with them while the moms catch up. That’s like two for the price of one. If I commit to doing this with three friends this summer, I will need the ‘Mom of the Year’ badge, complete with a Santorini vacation.

Ah, there is always a place to travel to, and that is the grandparents’s house.

If their G-parents live in the same town as you, hey, still make a big deal of it, as you pack up a small or big box, and send them over for a couple days or weeks. But make sure you send them with your nanny or home help so you don’t overburden these old folks. If your parents are out of town, perfect. You even need that time out so pack up and go. Don’t worry about whether the home is conducive or not, kids are not as high maintenance as you think. And it is just a couple days.

No grandparents? Then do you have any close older relation you can trust? Take them there. Having older folks hang out with kids just has a way of injecting more life in their years, not to talk of all the joy they bring.

Okay, back to projects.

One thing that some moms fear when kids are on vacation is how they suddenly no longer have time to do anything. This is especially scary if you run a home-based business and have real clients and deliverables. Wow! This can be major, and I feel you. However, you may need a whole project yourself to keep you fruitful at home.

So you are used to maximizing all the hours they spend at school to focus on other things (God bless school teachers), but now, they are home 24/7. What do you do?

Well, for starters, you may need to start to maximise your night hours instead. I called it a project because if you are used to sleeping and snoring all night, flipping that habit to maybe shaving a few three to four hours off your sleep at night to work or study is going to cost you something.

But, you got this girl! How bad do you wanna stay fruitful?

We are not going to be the ones who use our beautiful blessings as excuses. We are going to be the ones who do whatever we need to do, well within the confines of wisdom, to ensure that the holiday period doesn’t completely slam us. Who knows, maybe it is the ideas you get in those night hours, or the time spent in prayers for your husband and his career/job, that will suddenly birth the extra finances that will make summer in Dubai possible in 2020.

Just don’t forget me and my babies if this happens. I will prefer a vacation to Australia though, in case you were wondering.

Enjoy a guilt and pressure-free summer holidays, dear domestic queen.