SOS. SEND OUR SHOVELS.
By all accounts, now we have not had a really spendy summer season. Staying nearly fully out of town implies that the same old slow-drip from our wallets straight into these of ice cream and iced espresso and bagel distributors has largely been staunched. As a substitute of, on steamy walks dwelling from the park, caving and ducking right into a neighborhood restaurant for a dinner, we’ve principally eaten at dwelling. The few dates James and I’ve gone on have been closely backed by free babysitting from grandparents. James was Calder’s major companion this summer season and small city summer season camp, although nonetheless a serious expense, has felt possible this summer season in a approach it hasn’t ever felt again dwelling. And but, as August lingers and the weeks left till faculty begins proceed to stretch earlier than us, I’m noticing a sure form of buyerly impulse burbling up.
What’s that? The lure of the back-to-school bonanza? A promise of endless-summer purchasing spree? Is it the truth that I’m presently solo-ing right here in Connecticut with two children whereas James solos with the opposite again in Brooklyn? Is it that outdated impulse to imagine that possibly a purchase order may make issues just a bit simpler, make up for the deficit in organized actions and complete childcare? (See additionally: a blow-up pool. See additionally: a kids’ kayak.)
After weeks of scorching solar and warmer sand, the thirty-year-old seaside toys I defended in the beginning of the summer season have began to crack beneath the pressure of heavy play. The buckets have sprung leaks, the sand molds—little used within the first place—have splintered.
One of the best seaside toy isn’t any seaside toy, I say. Use your palms! I present my children the best way to dribble the moist sand between their fingers till they’ve recreated Gaudi’s cathedral in miniature, studded with mussel shells and seaweed. I present them the best way to use the tip of a whelk shell to carve traces within the moist sand, the best way to stack lengths of driftwood into drawbridges and barricades.
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