The Mom Flow: Embracing The Summer Slowdown

Welcome to The Mom Flow, where I share things that are on my mind in the hopes of helping you connect to your Mom Flow. Thanks for being here! —Erin Sousa

One of my fave parts of being a mom is how it draws out new parts of life I didn’t know existed. For me right now, that’s the joy and beauty of the summer slow down.

Now that Lola is in a school schedule of having summers off, it’s been different for our fam to plan around that. Different but amazing. I love letting work slow down a bit (perk of working for yourself) and doing things like hosting more, cooking outside, simplifying our routines, and being a bit more spontaneous and social. Even getting to take some time for just myself has been fantastic. I don’t think I’ve ever felt as content with life, and that huuuge for me.

BUT… I’ve actually never been a huge fan of summer – ok, so maybe I even used to dread it. Being downtown in a condo with no AC, we would be inundated with crowds and it felt stifling with the heat.

Now, I’m in a summer state of mind and I get the hype. I know this might not sound groundbreaking but for us it’s new – being in this new home lends to enjoying summer since it has an outdoor space (ok and AC, let’s be real ha!).

And it doesn’t have to be fancy!

The other night, I made some skewers on the BBQ (shoutout to my girls who grill!) while Roberto and Lola played soccer in the backyard and it was so lovely giving myself time to putter around. (OK, reality check – what actually happened was that I had a whole 80th birthday party planned for July 1, yep, Canada Day, but father in law got sick and then we were just going to have Roberto’s brother and fiancé over but Lola got sick. Like, not meant to be. Regardless, I do feel that appreciating those slow moments let me enjoy the time anyway. But if Lola is sick for her bday in just under two weeks I WILL rage.)

I guess why I’m saying all of this is that sometimes I feel “guilty” for enjoying a slower pace. Like if I’m not always frantic and barely hanging on, I’m not doing this whole thing right. I have a feeling I’m not alone in this? Go easy on yourself, and forget stuffing the days full. Go a little more slowly and savour it when you can – no guilt.

It’s also giving me pause to acknowledging why I am choosing to have one child – it seems like it’s giving me more time to enjoy the moments which is really what I had hoped for. Although, it’s all I know so take that one with a grain of salt. Then my friend sent me this video and wow… it hit home. Like these are the days!

Speaking of, I’m going to take a more relaxed approach to The Mom Flow over the summer and posts will be a tad more sparse. I’m sure you’re not online as much anyway so this will work out well!

There’s more! Keep reading this week’s edition of The Mom Flow by Erin Sousa; subscribe for free to receive new posts and support her work, here!