The number of summers you get with your kid isn’t infinite. It feels like it in the early years - when days are long and sticky with juice boxes and sunscreen, when the kid still reaches for your hand without thinking. But blink, and the rhythm of childhood changes. They grow taller, busier, more curious about the world beyond you and your backyard. Summers shift. And suddenly, the time you once took for granted becomes something you can count.

You don’t get many.

So don’t waste this one. Don’t let it vanish behind work emails, half-hearted plans, or the easy excuse of being tired. Say yes to the messy picnic. Get in the water instead of just watching from the shore. Burn the hot dogs. Miss the turn on the road trip. Make every summer a memory worth telling.

Because your kid won’t remember the perfect schedule or how clean the house was. They’ll remember how summer felt. The laughter echoing into a warm evening. The surprising softness of your voice when you read that book for the tenth time. The way you danced, badly, in the kitchen.

So do something. It doesn’t have to be grand.

There’s only so many summers left.

Make this one count.