The 6-Week Summer...a chaotic juggle, or calm and joyful?
Stop Enduring the 6-Week Summer Break and Start Enjoying It. This is How I’m Making the 6-Week Holidays Feel Less Like a Juggle and More Like Joy…
Every year around this time, I see the same conversation online and with my clients. Parents already counting down the days until September when life will feel easier again, and wishing away their lives until then. So many women are already stressed before the holidays have even begun. People talking about the summer like it’s six weeks of chaos to survive rather than six weeks of life to actually live.
And honestly…I do get it…the juggle is real with life, kids, work, a thousand snacks a day, routines that have gone out of the window and the constant question of “what are we doing today?” The mental load is real.
The pressure to keep everyone entertained, fed, regulated, organised and emotionally stable while somehow still working, cleaning, functioning and remembering what day it is… it’s a lot. And it is also another time of the year where you forget all about your own needs for 6 solid weeks, and live in survival mode. And frankly…it’s giving…overwhelmed martyr.
But over the last few years, I’ve realised something important. The summer holidays feel unbearable when we try to carry the same expectations we have during term time.
The pressure to do it all.
Be productive.
Keep the house perfect.
Make magical memories.
Be the fun mum.
Stay on top of work.
Keep everyone happy.
Maintain routines.
Never get overwhelmed.
It’s exhausting before it’s even started. So this year, like every year now, I’m giving myself permission to enjoy the summer instead of endure it. And I want you to put down the weight of enduring the holidays, and actually enjoy it the same way you do when you’re in Greece lapping up the holiday vibes. Because we both know when you are away from the day to day mental load you do actually enjoy yourself. We need that same energy in every day life, even if you’re just at home for the entire 6-weeks.
One of the biggest shifts I’ve made as a mum is living by what I call my “bare minimum strategy.” Meaning if all I focus on this summer is me, my kids and my clients… that is enough for me. Everything else becomes optional.
🧹The perfectly clean house? Optional.
📨Replying instantly? Optional.
🤹🏻♀️Being everything to everyone? Optional.
📝Being productive? Optional.
Because the pressure to do it all is exactly what steals joy from so many women. And honestly, most of us don’t need more time management tips. We need permission to stop expecting ourselves to function like machines.
Here’s what I’ll be doing to make the six-week holidays feel less like juggling hell and more like something I actually want to experience, and memories I know that will last a lifetime.
1. Filling My Cup Before Summer Starts
One of the biggest things I’ve learned as a mum of three is this…if I enter summer already burnt out, everything feels harder and September feels like the only next opportunity for rest to happen. Wrong. So in the weeks leading up to the holidays, I intentionally pour into myself first.
More rest.
More quiet.
More boundaries.
More saying no.
More slowing down.
More time for myself.
And I start filling up my cup now, 4 weeks before they break up. Because summer doesn’t just require practical energy, but emotional energy too. If I allow time to be my most rested self now, I have the capacity to start the summer break with the kids running on full charge. You will not be able to show up fully in the space that you want to be, while telling yourself there is no time for self-care, no opportunity to pour into yourself and then hoping it all works out. That’s self-sabotage.
2. Prioritising Time With My Kids
Not perfect time, not expensive time, not “memory making” pressure but just actual connection.
The truth is, children rarely remember the Instagram moments the way we think they will. They remember how home felt. They remember whether you were stressed or available. Whether you laughed. Whether you rested. Whether they felt emotionally safe around you. So this summer, I’m focusing less on performing motherhood and more on being present in it.
3. Lazy Mornings and Space to Rest
I refuse to create a packed-out schedule that leaves all of us overstimulated and exhausted by week two…or me financially bankrupt.
Some mornings will be slow, some days will be pyjamas until noon, some afternoons will involve everyone doing absolutely nothing. And I’m not going to feel guilty for that, because sometimes the most productive thing we can do is rest. Our nervous systems are not designed to live in constant stimulation, rushing and pressure. Especially not children’s nervous systems. Sometimes the most healing thing for a family is simply not needing to be anywhere.
4. A Day Off Each Week Just for Me
Not to catch up on life admin, not to clean, not to do errands but an actual day for me. Because motherhood without space to still feel like a human being outside of caregiving leads so many women into resentment, depletion and emotional exhaustion. I stopped believing a long time ago that being a “good mum” means abandoning myself completely. I need space too, and I’m allowed to build that into my life without earning it first.
5. Dedicated Work Days Without Guilt
I love my children deeply but I also love my work, and my clients, deeply. Both can exist in my world without guilt. I think so many women carry shame around ambition once they become mothers, as though wanting something for yourself somehow means you care less about your children. I don’t believe that. So during summer, I have dedicated work days where I fully lean on my village for support without guilt, without apologising and without believing I should do everything alone. My work schedule is hugely reduced, but my time is intentional and the focus I give to my clients doesn’t falter.
6. Regular Walks to Reconnect With Peace
One of the simplest things that changes everything for us is walking. No pressure, no agenda, no productivity attached to it. Just getting outside, slowing down, regulating our nervous systems and reconnecting with each other away from the noise of daily life. Sometimes we underestimate how healing simple things are.
7. More At-Home Days and Less Pressure to Perform Summer
I am absolutely not subscribing to the idea that good parenting means spending hundreds or thousands trying to recreate an Instagram summer. Some of the best days happen at home.
📽️Movie days.
🌿Garden days.
🧺Snack plates for lunch.
♟️Board games.
💦Water fights.
🛌🏻Doing nothing.
When I look back on my childhood it was all long hot summers in the garden, and I was so happy. Children do not need a professionally curated childhood to feel loved, and parents do not need to financially or emotionally bankrupt themselves trying to create one.
8. Continuing to Show Up for My Ambition
This one matters to me. Because my goals don’t disappear just because the schools close. So I’m continuing to show up for my business coaching programme this summer because my dreams still matter too. And I think more women need permission to hold both:
“I adore my children”
AND
“I still want things for myself.”
Motherhood should not require the complete burial of your identity. You are allowed to nurture your children and your ambition at the same time.
You Don’t Have to Spend Summer Wishing Your Life Away
I know so many parents who spend the entire summer counting down to September in the hope that life will finally feel easier again. But I refuse to live like that…and it’s also not true. September will have it’s own challenges.
I don’t want six weeks of surviving.
I don’t want six weeks of resentment.
I don’t want six weeks of feeling like I’m failing because I can’t keep up with impossible expectations.
I want joy, peace, presence, connection, space to breathe, slow days. And the beautiful thing is, those things are usually found in the moments we stop trying to do everything perfectly.
There are so many ways to enjoy the kids being off school.
So many ways to make summer feel softer. Not by doing more, but by expecting less from yourself. This summer, and every summer, I choose to enjoy it instead of endure it. And you’re allowed to do the same.
If you need help with that, because it already feels like you are fire fighting your way through life, you need the support to break the habits that have kept you in over functioning, because your whole sense of worth is tied into what you get done, not how you live your life. This is what we do inside the 6-month RESET programme.
👉🏻 1 space to start with me in June / July to get a handle on your summer.
👉🏻 Or start with me in September to break the cycle in time for Christmas (another peak time for over functioning and burnout)