10 Reasons Why I Love Summer Break (Yes, Really)

Rants abound as we stare into the dreaded summer vacation from school. (And if you haven’t seen them yet, just hold on. They’re coming. Promise.) But the end of the school year isn’t always something to eye with trepidation! Consider these 10 reasons to love summer break:

1. No getting up at the ass crack of dawn to scorch a PopTart and search frantically for missing shoes while you try to detangle hair on a child who must have slept in a rat-infested wind tunnel.

2. No more lunch-packing nightmares, or frantic perusal of Pinterest for hours to find new things to put in their lunches that might actually be consumed.

3. No more squinting through bleary sleep-crusty eyes trying to decipher “Please sign and return” notes that mysteriously just appeared out of thin air just before it’s time to walk out the door for school.

4. No midnight trips to the nearest store to grab something that’s a “must-have” for school the next day. No more projects. No more homework! Woot woot!

5. You can live off of popsicles, bologna sandwiches, juice pouches, and popcorn at least four days a week, without having to worry that some concerned authority figure at school will ask what they ate and call you in for detention.

6. Grandma is S.O.L. on that whole “Nooo, you can’t spend the night tonight. You’ve got school tomorrow” excuse.

7. Loose and breezy summer schedules mean we don’t have to be any-damn-where. Zero obligations. If we want to sacrifice our free and easy schedule with summer activities or sports, we can. But we don’t have to.

8. We can stay up as late as we want — no fights over bed time. We can also sleep as late as we want (or until 6 a.m. when your toddler, who gives zero fucks about your fun summer sleep-late schedule, decides it’s time to get up any-damn-way.) As long as we’re relatively quiet and don’t disturb she-who-still-has-to-go-to-work-in-the-morning, we’re golden.

9. The ice cream truck. You may hate the ice cream truck in your neighborhood, but it’s our summer version of Santa Claus. You better not pout, you better not cry, ice cream trucks only put out for big kids with dry eyes…

10. Pool time totally counts as bath time and can double as a sleep aid when combined with exertion and fresh air. Off to the pool at 3 or 4 in the afternoon? Hellooo, 7 p.m. bedtime.

Try to keep these great summer break perks in mind while you wait out the last few weeks of school. And just keep holding that through June, when you’ll start to hear, “I’m booooooooooooooored” for the 17,210,456,413,442,157,464th time.