So here's the thing: I am baaaad at deciding on things to do on the weekends. It's particularly rough when my boys are up. For reasons unknown to me, they seem to want to be entertained on weekends they visit.

In the past, they wouldn't go out to play much because an authority figure said something to them that scared them about the neighborhoods I lived in, even though they were safe neighborhoods.

Now that I live in a very nice, family-friendly community, they still have not made friends.

We have a lake behind our house, which I know sounds all high-falutin' and hoity-toity but since we live in a rural area 30 miles west of Salt Lake, it's actually not as high-falutin' and hoity-toity as it sounds.

We have a paddleboat that came with the house. The kids were enthralled with it for all of 5 seconds and have rarely used it since.

We have a community pool that charges up the wazoo to use, which seems really ridiculous to me because, hello! It's situated right next to a lake! Why charge so much to use the pool when there's a lake kids can get into for free?

But when I was a teen? I spent ALL my time during the summer at the pool. These boys? They never do.

Our weekends typically go something like this:

Them: So what are we gonna do this weekend?

Me: What would you like to do?

Them: I dunno.


















There's a part of me that screams inside every time. How can you not know what you want to do?

Here's what we have in our little town to do: ride your bike, use the lake, go swimming, use the skatepark, use the basketball court, go see a movie, go bowling. I admit, that's not a ton of stuff to do but it should be enough for the boys to entertain themselves on a weekend, right?


And I admit, I'm not good at coming up with things for them to do because I was never a teenage boy (shocking but true) so I don't know what teen and pre-teen boys do.

And I'm not sure that Brad was ever a teenage boy, either, in spite of the evidence to the contrary. Brad is much better with girls than boys.

So we struggle to come up with things for them to do.

Maybe we're just not imaginative.

Maybe we're boring.

Maybe we're succumbing to the burden the boys have placed on us to entertain them when they should be capable of doing it themselves.

And honestly? I want them to enjoy their time with me so that maybe, eventually, at some point, they'll decide they want to live with me instead of their dad.


Oh dear lord! A self-discovery moment! I hate it when that happens in public.

Hmm. I guess the burden that's been placed on us to entertain them wasn't put on us entirely by them. It's a burden I placed on us as well. Which is a topic for a different post.

In the meantime, I guess it's always going to be a matter of figuring out what to do to entertain them. Or to help them find things to do on their own.

And releasing us from the stress of trying to be the popular parents. Coz there's no burden more overwhelming than trying to be the popular parent.

Believe me, I know!