Give me my summer back!!!

Someone in the office mentioned that Labor Day is THIS weekend. Huh? Soooo, if Labor Day is this weekend, one would then assume it must be the first weekend in September, which would then lead one to assume that we just completed Summer. Huh? Did I miss the email announcing Summer was here? Didn't it just stop blowing snow and ice like 2 weeks ago?

When I was a kid, it seemed like summer lasted a lifetime. School dismissed a week before Memorial Day and we would drag ourselves back to school the week after Labor Day......endless summers. This summer my kids got out of school on June 13th and returned back to school August 11th. A math major I am not, but my calculations add this summer up to 8 weeks, or 2 months (if you're into months). How have we lost a month of summer?

In Indiana there is a movement on foot called "Save Indiana Summers" . It appears to be a bunch of teachers, parents and community members have banded together to lobby the state to increase the summer vacation by at least a few weeks. I haven't dug into the website deep enough to determine if they are approaching this from the right angle, but it appears they have the kids' interests at heart.

I'm a big believer that an integral part of a child's "education" is taking time in the summer to go to camps, take family vacations, play sports and just simply "hanging out with friends" being kids. My wife and I spent all summer trying to cram a "Summer's" worth of fun down our kid's throats in 8 weeks. I'll be the first to admit, it isn't easy. Our kids have been to camp, been on a two week family vacation, spent time with their grandparents and even found time to meet their summer reading goals. At last count, we were in Indianapolis one weekend this summer. -Not much time to spend hanging out being a kid with your friends.

I don't have a lot of clarity on a solution, but I do know one thing: 8 weeks doesn't make a summer. So, here I am staring Labor Day directly in the face and wondering where in the hell my summer went.....oh, well, we always have "Indian Summer" to look forward to in October! ;)

One of my favorite scenes from the greatest summer movie ever!