Why Can't We Just Play: What I Did When I Realized My Kids Were Way Too Busy

(Paperback)

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Facing summer with her two boys, ages ten and seven, Pam Lobley was sifting through signups for swim team, rec camp, night camp, scout camp, and enrichment classes. Overwhelmed at the choices, she asked her sons what they wanted to do during summer: Soccer Zoo School Little Prodigys Art ClubWhy cant we just play they asked.A summer with no scheduled activities at all . . . The thought was tempting, but was it possible It would be like something out of the 1950s. Could they really have a summer like thatJuggling the expectations of her husband (Are you going to wear garters), her son, Sam (Im bored!), and her son, Jack (Can I just stay in my pajamas), Pam sets out to give her kids an old-fashioned summer. During the shapeless days, she studies up on the myths and realities of the 1950s. With her trademark wit and candor, she reveals what we can learn from those long-ago families, why raising kids has changed so drastically, and most importantly, how to stop time once in a while and just play.

Reviews

"When Pam Lobley came to the realization that the vision she had for her family lifelingering over books, laughing fits at bedtimein no way resembled the panicked, exhausting mad rush of her days, she set out to re-create the 1950s. Literally. Why Cant We Just Play is her touching, honest and amusing account of the summer she gave her kids the gift of boredom and set a goal for herself that was both simple and profound: to learn to pay attention to her life as she lived it."
BRIGID SCHULTE, author of the NYT bestselling Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time

"Pam Lobley is irresistibly funny and forthright, a breath of fresh air as she sounds offabout the benefits (and downsides) of giving her two sons a summer with no obligations.Honest and clear-eyed, what sounds like every parents dreama summer of familytime and funbecomes a rollercoaster of the good, the bad and the ugly. All-in-all, agreat comment on how we could all use time off if only we can deal with the shock ofan empty calendar, two energetic boys with no plans, and the social pressures offriends who are still living from activity-to-activity."
MONICA HOLLOWAY, author of Cowboy Wills: Driving with Dead People and theupcoming There Goes Perfect . . . Marriage, Mayhem the Split That Damn Near KilledMe

"Why Can't We Just Play is smart, funny, insightful, and refreshingly honest.Youd think that Pam Lobley and I would be oppositestiger mom vs. play mombut I loved and totally related to her determination to parent against the tide.Entertaining and endearing, this book reminds us that parenting can be at once the most absurd, the most humbling, and the mostly deeply rewarding thing any of us ever do."
AMY CHUA, Yale Law Professor and author ofBattle Hymn of the Tiger MotherandThe Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America

Author Bio

Pam Lobley is a comedic writer of plays, columns, and books. Her memoir,Why Can't We Just Play What I Did When I Realized My Kids Were Way Too Busy, details the year she let her stressed, over-scheduled children, take the summer off from their busy activities and just play.She lives in New Jersey with her husbandactor Bill Lobleya dog, and an almost-empty nest.