“Summer time and the living is easy,” and “There ain’t no cure for the summer time blues”are musical words that typify the summer season of our lives, especially for teenagers. They either find their lives jam-packed with summer activities like summer school, football practice, band camp, a summer job, or they find themselves bored and endlessly complaining there’s nothing to do. You might even find them on the couch, devouring bags of chips and gallons of soda, eyes glazed from hours of playing video games, day after day for months on end.
As far as I am concerned, summer time is the toughest time of the year for our teens. Sure, there are fewer school plays, sports activities, and parent meetings to attend, so we tend to believe that both the lives of teens and of parents are less stressful and more relaxed. However, when the school year ends, the absence of a structured school day can allow some kids, particularly teenagers, to wander down the wrong path.
According to a poll by nonprofit organization, Fight Crime: Invest in Kids California, children who are not supervised are more likely to commit crimes, be victims of crimes, do drugs, or hang out with gang members. The organization also reports that youths start committing crimes around noon during the summer, compared to 3 p.m. during the school year. In addition, teens tend to commit drug crimes later in the evening during the summer, most likely because they can stay out later without worrying about getting up early for school. This means teens need constructive activities to occupy a broader range of time in summer than during the school year. For working parents, it’s difficult to be around from noon until late in the evening every day.
A report from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy suggests that more American teens try marijuana for the first time in summer than at any other time of year. This translates into 6,300 new users each day, a 40 percent increase in first-time youth marijuana use during June and July as compared to the rest of the year. A hike in new underage drinkers and cigarette smokers also occurs during the summer months.
Summer is not a time for easing up on parent expectations and teen accountability. If we are managing our teen’s lives with consistency, be it winter, spring, summer, or fall, we will hold our teens accountable for household chores and responsibilities, curfews, family and moral values, and we will still be there to watch our teens with that watchful parenting eye and pay attention to whom our teens are hanging out with.
In many homes, all of the structure and scheduling that occurs during the school year turns into unadulterated freedom in the summer. The very nature of summer leaves most teens these days without supervision.
Keep in mind I said without supervision, I didn’t say without friends. Ah the friends, even if you tell your teen they are not allowed to have company in the house while you’re at work, they still find themselves in the company of their friends. Impossible you say? Consider this. In this day and age, most teens have a cell phone or have friends who have a cell phone. The telecommunications world has given our teens the opportunity to talk to their friends, 24-hours per day, and to text message them as well.