Summer time brings visions of beaches, mountains, road trips, summer camps and college tours. Teens typically thrive within some sort of structure—a daily schedule, regular routines, etc. This structure can immediately fall away as the school year ends and the summer begins.

A struggle for many full-time working parents is how to maintain structure throughout the summer, while allowing their teen to enjoy their time off.

A few tips below:

• Research day camps, seminars, even summer courses at a local community college (many allow students under 18 to take extracurricular classes) based on topics and interests of your teen. The goal isn’t to fill their summer with school-like activities, but more to find a few activities of interest to your teen and be intentional about ways they can learn more about the topic or gain additional practice/experience.
• If your teen is above the age of 16, discuss the practical logistics and responsibilities of having a job. Even a part-time job can instill such character virtues as autonomy, personal respect, and responsibility.
• If at all possible, find time to let your teen enjoy unstructured ‘free time’ with friends. Teens deeply value time with their friends, and especially when they are in charge of finding things to do. Balance this with other time that is structured and laid out.
• Discuss any household or daily responsibilities that are expected from your teen over the summer. Some examples might be to provide supervision for younger siblings a few hours a week, completing daily/weekly household chores, being up and out of bed by a certain time during the week.
• Try to figure out family vacations at the beginning of summer, so other activities can be scheduled around family vacation time. It’s fun to look forward to a beach trip or a road trip after a long academic year!

Sarah Brookings, MA, LPC
sbrookings @ growcounseling.com

Photo Cred: Marlon Dias