Author’s Note: Anonymous Summer Children wrote this post in the spirit of the other posts I have written over the years.

We have dirty feet, questionably greasy hair, marshmallow in the corners of our mouths, and possibly too many potato chips in our bellies.

We are the summer children.

When we aren’t asking for a bike ride or an ice cream trip, or *another* round of mini golf, we are debating, questioning, and arguing in the back seat of some van or SUV and you are probably turning up your podcast not to hear it, again.

But we are so sweet. We still crawl into bed with you in the morning and laugh at (some of) your jokes. We ask if you know where all of our stuff is- even before we look for it. That’s just the what summer children do.

We sleep until we want to get up and stay up later than you ever used to allow. Our boundaries have stretched so far, sometimes even we feel guilty. How much ice cream are you going to let us eat?

We play with all of your friends’ kids and like the lack of supervision that comes with huge parties and gangs of pre-tweens running through a backyard. Your friends have pools, trampolines, lots of snacks, and streaming TV we don’t have, so we like that, too.

You signed us up for camps so you could get some peace and quiet. We didn’t mind. We made friends and only missed you a little bit most days. You wrote us a letter for each day of our sleepaway. We know you missed us even in your peace and quiet. We liked that, too.

You packed so many bags and did so much laundry, and applied so much sunscreen, we know you must be tired of that. But summer laundry has nothing on winter laundry, or that’s what you said once anyway.

We like to cuddle on rainy days as long as no one is around and we tolerate the chores you give us. Sometimes we have to do extra chores because of our behavior and we get that, too. Especially when the completion of said chores means-ice cream?

We are happy we get so much more time with you in July and August. We don’t always say it but we know that the daily fun you have prescribed for us is something we will always remember and try to create for our own kids.

Summer children are loud, sometimes naughty, and often are sent outside. But they also collect rocks, make very specific plans for lemonade stands, and catch fireflies.

But we also know you don’t want us to transition out of summer mode too quickly.

School year children have regular bedtimes, more predictable moods, cleaner feet, and perhaps more balanced meals (not as much ice cream). But they don’t have the sparkle, the carefree nature, the zest for adventure quite like the summer child.

We know you know this.

So, we promise not to transition a minute too early. We promise to let you keep making us s’mores, keep nagging us to shower, and keep folding load after load of laundry.

Because we see the corners of your eyes fill up in beautiful moments. Summer parents are total saps.

Your summer children know you love the summer as much as they do.

And we know you’ll be sorry to see us go.