The Seasons of Parenting: Summer Fun
Oversubscribed Newsletter
Season: Q3 2026
Summer Rhythms
Article by Megan Hughes, PhD
Summer is the perfect season to lean into fun! In this article I’ll encourage you to do a quick check-in to see how your summer schedule is lining up. Then I’ll share two options for adding in more summer fun.
Assess your summer schedule.
Your work schedule might be more flexible with summer Fridays in the corporate world or an overall slower pace in academia. Your kids’ extracurricular calendars might slow down or the longer camp bus ride might give you back some time at the end of the day. It’s also possible that you are experiencing the magic schedule boost of sleepaway camp!
Of course, the exact opposite might be true as well. Those in academic medicine might be prepping to take on a whole new set of trainees on July 1st. And many people have trickier driving schedules in the summer with multiple camp dropoffs across town.
Make sure to take some time to think through how your schedule will change for the summer, for better or worse, so that you’ll be ready to go when it’s time.
Quick dive into summer fun: Pick some summer adventures!
Laura Vanderkam, in her book Tranquility by Tuesday, talks about how adults can slip into a regular routine, and then days can slide into weeks that can slide into years. We might look up one day and realize that a lot of time has passed and we don’t have as many standout memories to show for it. Vanderkam advocates for adding in more frequent adventures to make life more memorable. She specifically recommends adding in one mini adventure per week (something that lasts about an hour) and one big adventure per week (lasting for a few hours on the weekend). Mini adventures can be as simple as going for a walk in a new location. Big adventures can be going to see a professional sports game. She has a list of her proposed 2026 summer seasonal adventures on her blog so that you can get some ideas to add to your own summer adventure list.
Deep dive into summer fun: Learn about True Fun and how to foster it.
Catherine Price’s book, The Power of Fun, is a great fit for thinking through how to add some fun to your life this summer (and going forward). She distinguishes between what we generally might do “for fun” and her precise definition of True Fun.
Price distinguishes True Fun from other positive emotions like joy, satisfaction, happiness, awe, and relaxation (p. 33-34). She notes that while it is great to have a variety of positive emotions in your life, her book’s mission is specifically focused on adding in True Fun.
Price defines a recipe for True Fun as “the confluence of playfulness, connection, and flow” (p. 32).
Playfulness is defined as a “spirit of lightheartedness and freedom” (p. 32) and can include a host of qualities including silliness, creativity, absurdity, and spontaneity (p. 148).
Connection is “the feeling of having a special, shared experience with someone (or something) else” (p. 33). She notes that connection doesn’t have to be with another person…it could be connection with your own body, your pet, or nature. But she reports that True Fun is most likely to happen when you are with someone else (this is the case even for introverts).
Flow is “when you are fully engrossed and engaged in your present experience to the point that you lose track of the passage of time” (p. 33). Flow requires that you are paying attention without self-consciousness.
In addition to having all 3 elements of fun present to have True Fun, you also need the absence of any FUN KILLERS. Cell phones distract and make you less engaged so they are a fun killer. Judgment of self or others, also a fun killer. Passive consumption (like watching a show or scrolling) might sometimes be enjoyable, but they don’t qualify as True Fun because you aren’t engaged actively. Price also notes the distinction of Fake Fun. “Fake Fun is numbing and leaves us empty when we’re done. True Fun, on the other hand, makes us feel nourished and refreshed” (p 16-17). She cites examples like bingeing a show, scrolling, shopping, and substance use as Fake Fun.
Fun Audit. Price suggests that before you create your fun plan, you should first complete a fun audit. Think through when you’ve had True Fun recently. If you are having a hard time thinking of any examples, she offers several strategies that might help. One I especially liked was to look back earlier into your life for memories of belly laughing, a common indicator of True Fun.
Price next guides you to define your personal fun magnets, fun factors, and anti-fun factors. Fun magnets are the activities, settings, and people with which True Fun is more likely to arise (p. 143). For me, fun magnets include being with people who I know well, nature, and a physical or intellectual challenge. Next, you can consider your fun factors, “the characteristics of your fun magnets” (p. 147). For me, some fun factors are physicality, thrill-seeking, nature, small groups, intellectual stimulation and creativity. It’s important to note that people have different fun factors and anti-fun factors. For example, some people love activities with a little perceived risk (e.g., rollercoasters) and some people hate those activities. Understanding your fun factors and anti-fun factors as well as those of your loved ones can help curate your experiences to maximize the likelihood of True Fun.
After all that prep work, you are now ready to implement her SPARK intervention and create a fun plan.
Make Space: protect the time for fun by weeding out anti-fun things like passive scrolling. Protect time by switching off childcare duties with a partner or caregiver so that you have some time to pursue your own version of True Fun.
Pursue Passions & Hobbies
Attract Fun (be easy to laugh, send out fun signals, and more)
Rebel (against formality or perfectionism, and more)
Keep At It (create a fun squad and keep looking for mini and big opportunities for fun)
Based on my reading of Price’s The Power of Fun and my new personal list of Fun Magnets and Fun Factors, I’ll be looking to add in more pickleball and dancing into my summer. And since spontaneity, a focus on the absurd, and a little risk are other fun magnets for me, I think that an improv class could be an opportunity for some True Fun this fall.
The book covers so many strategies for how to bring fun into your life and I highly recommend it for an early summer read. It will help you focus on what conditions you can set ahead of time in order to have the most True Fun on your summer vacation.