By Andrea Lavinthal, a Greenwich Mom of two who is the Style & Beauty Director at PEOPLE. Like many families, Andrea and her husband, Justin Gregory and their kids Saxon, 5, and Vaughn, 3, moved to town from Manhattan at the beginning of the pandemic. Read more about her in her Meet a Mom Interview
Congratulations, moms! You managed to make it through another school year and now it’s time to kick back, relax and enjoy everyone’s favorite season. Because nothing says “hot mom summer” like wrestling your kids to the ground so you can coat every exposed inch of their skin with sunscreen, arguing with your husband over his standing tee time. (9am on a Saturday? Really, Steven?) and realizing you forgot to shave your legs. Again. Also, whoever is trying to make “hot mom summer” a thing, please stop.
So we came up with a summer checklist to remind you that you’re not the only mom who feels like she can’t keep it together right now (or ever). We see you, we hear you and we’d love to get coffee before we drop off our oldest at art camp and pick up our youngest at gymnastics.
Instead of making yourself crazy trying to have the best summer ever, why not just lean into the craziness of the season? Besides, school and all the routines, homework and nasal swabs that come with it will be here before you know it, so you might as well enjoy the only time of year when it’s acceptable to feed your kids hot dogs for dinner five nights in a row.
1. Stay up all night sticking 122 personalized “Max” and “Emma” labels on every t-shirt, towel, bathing suit, hat, sock, sneaker, water bottle, lunch box in your house. Realize in the morning you spelled your son’s name wrong. Have a great first day at camp, Mix!
2. Find a chiropractor who can fix the shoulder injury you sustained while assembling your new Cool Cabana at the beach.
3. Get dinner on the cal with Lindsey R, Lindsay S, Lauren K, Lauren T, Jessica and Rachel. Exchange 35 texts about dates then agree to schedule after Labor Day when everyone’s calendars are less crazy. Never see them again.
4. Rent a place in Sag Harbor for a week so you can pay $15,000 to do the laundry in someone else’s house.
5. Send an Edible Arrangement to Trisha, the Serena & Lily customer service representative who had to take your call after you got an email that the powder room wallpaper you chose is backordered until October.
6. Buy Birkenstocks.
7. Return Birkenstocks.
8. Start a petition for the Mr. Softee truck to serve frosé.
9. Spam your family group text with photos of your hydrangeas.
10. Make an appointment with your therapist when no one in your family responds to the photos of your hydrangeas.
11. Go see Where the Crawdads Sing in the theater. Tell everyone you liked the book better. (You never read the book.)
12. Take your toddler to a music class in the park. When the instructor asks if there are any songs your child wants to hear, request, “About Damn Time.”
13. Book a Keratin treatment. Whenever someone compliments your hair, tell them that it air dries naturally like that.
14. Call your son’s sleepaway camp after receiving a letter from him that says, “I lost my toothbrush last week so my bunkmate is letting me use his.”
15. Mute anyone on Instagram who’s in Capri.
16. Mute anyone on Instagram who’s in St Barts.
17. Mute anyone on Instagram who’s in Mykonos.
18. Pretend you love to play pickleball.
19. Go to HomeGoods for new outdoor pillows. Leave with indoor pillows, a laundry basket and a serving bowl with lobsters on it.
20. Put a pair of tweezers in your glove compartment so you can pluck your chin hairs while you wait in the car for your kids to finish their tennis lessons.
21. Get your in-laws to watch the kids while you and your husband have a much needed weekend away. Get your nanny to watch your in-laws.
22. Commit to reading three books this summer. Okay, two. Fine, one. Chapter.
23. Resist the urge to say, “I carried a watermelon” anytime you carry a watermelon into a barbecue.
24. Start freaking out about going back to school.
25. Start freaking out about Christmas.
