Summer Joy: Lessons Learned at the Trampoline Park

Here we are again; another school year is complete, and we are thinking about the summer stretching out before us. Ah, yes, summer. A time just waiting to be filled with (hopefully) fun and relaxing family time, but more likely sprinkled with a contest between siblings to find out who can mention that they are bored the most number of times. A close second goes to the child who can mention how hot it is the most. And third place goes to the child who needs the most batteries for their Xbox controller after you give up on the screen time limit battle on day 5,347 of it being the exact temperature of the sun outside. (That might be a slight exaggeration, slight.)

So, how are we as parents supposed to take this all in stride and focus on the joy in the chaos?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, in between googling summer camps and buying up a ridiculous amount of summertime craft projects that we all know will end up being finished by yours truly. Believe it or not, I have been thinking about a chaotic scene from not too long ago, and it’s given me some insight into how to keep my sanity this summer when I consider myself attempting to become a maternal cruise director. But really, I’m running around like a chicken with my head cut off, as my sainted grandmother, who somehow raised six children, used to say.

My musings began pre-pandemic, on a run-of-the-mill trip to an indoor trampoline park. My youngest was still tiny, maybe six months old, and my three older kids had convinced me this would be a good idea. Now, for those of you unfamiliar with an indoor trampoline park (and therefore luckier than the rest of us), it is a trampoline, a giant human-sized hamster tube, and an overzealous middle school dance DJ, with a concession stand and filled with screaming kids. Sounds fantastic, right?

So we arrived, and I sent my three older cherubs to go frolic freely amongst the bouncy delights. (After a warning to the twins to not beat each other senseless with those padded pole things a la Wipeout. No one is more festive on that thing than a set of twins. Same height, same age, and they’ve been taking swings at each other since the womb. But I digress….)

My baby, tucked safely in her carrier, and I went to traipse back and forth between the various activities whenever “Hey, Mom!  Watch this!” came our way. It was all going well until the baby started getting tired and overwhelmed. I’m sure she was overstimulated. (I was too, frankly!) So I decided to find a quiet (ish) corner of the room and sang to her. I was hardly competing with the thumping energetic music being pumped through the room, but she was happy to listen. I could see her sweet little face looking into mine for reassurance. She wasn’t worried about the crazy happening all around her. All she wanted to look at and listen to was me. And she was so much happier when she focused on me and my song.

I can almost hear you wondering why I’m mentioning all of this. Partly, it’s because I like to warn people before they go unprepared into the fray of a crazy trampoline circus zone. (And if your kids are too old for all of this, consider this a warning pre-grandkids. I hear they can dupe you into taking them to all kinds of crazy places.) But mainly, it’s because we are heading into a time of year when, like my sweet baby, life can just be too much.  We have so many expectations for ourselves, both real and imagined. And even though they might all be good things, they can still be overwhelming. In this scenario, my big kids were having an absolute ball and loving the chaos. All of the things around them were good and fun and amazing for them.

But my baby girl was not happy. She needed to have some time with her mom and be reassured by my words. And if a flawed, tired, imperfect mama can give her peace just by helping her focus on my presence instead of the things happening around her, how much more peace can God give us? If I’m honest, it’s hard sometimes for me to wrap my head around the fact that God loves me more than I love my children. (And that He loves my children more than I do too.) But He does. And He has plans for me to prosper, even when I can’t see anything but all of the busyness.

Here are my summer takeaways from the trampoline park incident.

1. My goal this summer is to make that time to focus on God, and read His word so that I can hear His voice just like my sweet girl heard mine. His truth is so much more reassuring than my rendition of “twinkle, twinkle little star” will ever be. I just have to make the time to hear Him. (In a way, that makes me a little jealous of my baby girl, because sometimes I think a lot of us would benefit from God Himself just physically taking us aside and making us be still and listen, but unfortunately it doesn’t work that way.)

In a life where sometimes happiness feels tied to checking off all of the boxes we feel like we are expected to check, peace is usually found in just being still. And yes, I know how that finding time for even that makes you feel overwhelmed. But luckily, God meets us where we are. Anytime we spend with Him is good, even if it’s between sweeping up the snacks and finding everyone’s shoes. (I never realized how much of my life would be spent doing that. I think my house swallows the kids’ shoes and then spits them out somewhere weird. But I can’t prove it. ) Or maybe, in your house, this looks like playing music that is grounded in God’s truth throughout your day. I love it when Scripture is set to song, and then the song pops in my head when I need it most. Alexa would be happy to oblige, I promise. (And I also suggest you let Alexa help you torture your older children with some old-school 90s songs. That may not be theologically helpful, but it sure is entertaining.)

There are so many beautiful verses that tell us how God would love for us to have peace.

You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.

Isaiah 26:3

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

John 14:27

2. I won’t feel ashamed to ask for help, both from God and also from the other wonderful people he has allowed me to do life with.  And (gasp!) even from my children, when it is age-appropriate to do so. I don’t need to do all of the things alone. There’s no post-summer trophy for running yourself into the ground.

When my sweet girl needed me, it never once occurred to me to tell her no. (And by the way, I’m talking about sincere need. My big kids have two legs and the ability to get their own water bottle. Not waiting to interrupt “Fortnite” isn’t a sincere need.  Just so we are clear!) She needed help. So I helped her. I want my kids, no matter their age, to please come to me in their times of need. I want to share their troubles and help reassure them. It is never a burden. And our Heavenly Father feels the same way about us.

Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

1 Peter 5:6-7

3. I will remind myself to enjoy this phase of life. Back to the trampoline park, there’s a whole other lesson to be learned when my littlest cherub got old enough to want to get down and do everything the big kids were doing. I didn’t let her for her own good. Just like God sometimes stops us from things that aren’t right for us right now. They may be right in our next season, just not right now. And sometimes that makes us just as angry as toddlers.

I sometimes get jealous of the summer experience of other moms, lounging by the pool reading a book while my older pool-safe kids hang with their friends. Meanwhile, I am wrestling the littlest one into a puddle jumper, slathering all the kids (and sometimes husband) in sunscreen again since they “forgot”, and adjusting the googles for the millionth time. (Someone with a science-minded kid, please encourage them to invent self-adjusting swim goggles. Please and thank you!) But if I skipped forward to poolside reading season, I would miss out on the joy and wonder of the season I’m in. I’d miss giggles and splashes, super cute little toes in the sand, kids at an age when it’s still “cool” for me to be around them, and being admired for my super-mediocre underwater handstands. Young kids are a very forgiving audience! (And I’d be willing to bet that more than one of those relaxing moms would love to go back for even a day to hearing “Mom! watch this!” before being subsequently splashed by a well-executed cannonball.)

Like Theodore Roosevelt said “comparison is the thief of joy”. We know that God has plans for us in His time. We can’t control what happens and when. And in Jesus’ own words:

“It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.”

Acts 1:7, ESV

Maybe this summer is supposed to be a time of travel and spectacular experiences with friends and family.   Maybe it’s supposed to be a time of rest and reflection. Maybe it will be a time to recover and heal from some physical or emotional challenge. Whatever it is, we can trust that God cares for us and will meet us where we are on our journey. We just need to listen and let Him lead.

By now, you are probably thinking a couple of things.

  1. Remind me never to go to a trampoline park with this crazy lady.
  2.  I need to spend time focusing on God’s word this summer and listening for His voice.
For more ideas to make a more meaningful summer with your family read:

Planning a Slower Summer

How to Connect with Your Teen This Summer

Author

  • Ginger Matthews

    Ginger Matthews is a wife and a mother to four active children ranging from two to twelve years old. Before transitioning to full-time virtual schooling with her kids in 2020, she was a school teacher and was active in the arts. Ginger loves to spend time with family and friends, and she has a heart for moms of kids with T-1 Diabetes.

Scroll to top