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Before I became a mom, I wondered why parents complained about long summers.
What's better than spending those warm summer days doing all kinds of cool stuff with your lovely little ones?
Clearly, I had no idea what I was talking about.
Summers are hard ― and long.
Now I know.
The sun is out longer, the kids are more hyper, and the heat doesn't always permit, especially in a city like Dallas where going over 100 degrees Farenheit isn't anything uncommon.
So if you don't want to be stuck home day after day with an always on-the-go toddler ― two for me ― then you better have a pretty impressive list of activities and ideas up your sleeve to keep up the entertainment level.
I'm pretty new to this stage of parenting.
Up until last year, my girls weren't nearly as demanding as they are now.
They pretty much followed my lead.
But now they're up at 7 a.m., both wearing their tiny little Hello Kitty backpacks, still in their pajamas, shoes swapped and waiting in front of the door calling mom to go outside. Again, at 7 a.m.
Yes, I told you, my summer days are long.
After realizing that staying home with the twins, along with my smallest six-month-old, all day long isn't going to put any of us in a happy place, I started looking ― frantically ― for things to do around here.
I'm still pretty new to town, so it's hard to figure out what moms here generally do with their kids.
Things are definitely different from Korea, where you can easily find a good selection of well-equipped and staffed kids' cafe in any sizeable neighborhood, relatively low-cost educational programs at "cultural centers'' run by major retailers, and even apartment playgrounds that are pretty fancy and fun enough to keep children entertained for hours.
I started my search online, initially looking for summer day camps. Long ones.
But unfortunately, none of the ones I found accept children under five, so that's not even going to be a possibility until years later.
And then I moved on to short-term programs offered by local churches.
Again, no participants under age three.
I then started looking into the more expensive hourly events held at various activities and learning centers.
Finally, toddlers are welcome here.
I checked out one of them a few days ago and was pleasantly surprised that it was almost like a typical kids' cafe in Korea, minus the full-fledged food menu.
I paid a $12 admission fee per child, which gave the girls unlimited time of one-day access to the 2,500 square feet "educational play center'' that looks like a mini town square with a grocery store, fire station, bakery and school.
No ball pit, no slide and no trampoline, but the kids had a blast.
They played for an hour and we had to leave because Baby C started crying, but Baby B did not want to leave for sure.
How do I know?
She held onto one of grocery carts refusing to let go. Thank goodness we left the premises without making a scene.
After days of searching, I'm relieved that I now have one reliable place to go to once or twice a week.
What about the other days?
The public library, swimming pool and local supermarkets (you wouldn't believe how much fun kids have grocery shopping) are some other options.
While busily trying to come up with places to "tire out'' my energetic toddlers, I started to feel a bit guilty.
I asked myself why I'm struggling to take the girls outside of the home so much.
After all, in just a few short years, they're most likely going to end up in those summer camps and other ''educational programs'' anyway.
Couldn't I just keep them home for one or two summers?
Is it that hard of a thing to do?
The guilt trip sort of began going out of control and that's when I started researching all kinds of at-home activities to do with kids.
Just one search on Google and more than 8 million results right in front of my face.
Bam.
Now I have no excuse to have boredom anywhere in my house.
Ah, the power of information amazed me yet again.
Between the 8 million search results and the indoor play center, my girls certainly ought to have a pretty good summer.
Parenting is tough regardless of the season, but I'm realizing that mom and dad's creativity and energy level make a world of a difference for the little ones.
The pressure is on, but all for the best reason ― to see that cute little smile spread across my children's face.
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