4 Reasons Your Teens Should Spend The Summer Doing Nothing

Leigh Anderson, mom writer at The Mid, recently shared one of her favorite childhood memories in an article about how letting our teens do nothing is just what they need for next summer.

Don't worry, she doesn't mean we ought to let them veg out on the couch all day in grungy pajamas eating all the potato chips in the house and throwing the wrappers on the floor. Why are teenagers so messy?

She's talking about shipping them off to the grandparents for the summer. I know what you're thinking: They'll hate it. They'll have nothing to do. They'll drive Mom crazy.

Anderson says she learned a lot from a few summers at her grandparents' retirement community with absolutely nothing to do.

Here's what your kids can learn from a similar experience:

1. They can launch weird self-improvement projects.
I would set strange goals for myself: Read two pages of the Bible a day and try to understand them. Memorize a passage from King Lear. I put olive oil in my hair for days on end, hoping that obsessive conditioning would change it fundamental lankness.

I remember spending summers with my grandparents too. My siblings and I tried elaborate projects like this too! We often had the help and encouragement of our grandparents. One summer my sister and I wrote a play together. One summer I learned to sew from my grandmother.  Once, my brother and my grandfather spent the summer building a little boat from scrap wood. We were all amazed when it actually survived a few fishing trips to the local pond.

2. They can actually get to know the members of their family.
Summers sitting on the porch with the old folks put me a little out of step with my classmates, who were all hyper-focused on doing things that would look good on college applications. But I knew my grandparents wouldn't be around forever, and I didn't want to spend time Xeroxing in a law firm when I could be learning to make my grandma's beach plum jelly.

I'll never regret the summers I spent learning from my grandparents. Recently, I explained to my kids how to catch crabs at the beach. My grandfather taught me that. I'm convinced the crabs at the beach tasted better than ever this year.

3. They'll learn sensitivity.
Sometimes being completely out of step with your peer group can give you a calmer, broader view of the world. Doing nothing in the summer, when your friends all have activities, often means kicking around town, talking to other people—people who aren't necessarily your age. I spent a lot of time talking to my grandmother about her work as a psychologist and my grandfather's work as a reporter. I was also able to be some help to them as they aged, which was a small dose of empathy for a generally self-centered teen.

My great grandfather's brother was a high school basketball star in a small town. He was a ship builder during World War II. He never had any children of his own. He cared for his wife by himself until she lost her battle with Alzheimer's Disease. One summer, near the end of his life, it was determined by the family that he couldn't stay by himself anymore and someone who didn't have any other commitments (high school aged me) should go spend a few months taking care of him. My sister and I traded off every two weeks. We heard the same stories a hundred times and learned to watch baseball on a TV with the volume turned sky high. I can still tell you, in detail, about his last great basketball game.

4. They'll learn self-actualization.
If the whole day or summer is stretching before you with nothing planned—and with no parent telling you what you need to do—you realize pretty quickly that the only person responsible for you is you. You make your own fun, and you make your own projects. Or you'll lose your freaking mind.

What else can your kids learn from a summer with nothing to do? check out 3 more reasons you really ought to try it at The Mid.