This post is sponsored by Pure Protein. All thoughts and opinions expressed below are honesty and unbiased, as always
A lot of parents, too many parents if you ask me, mourn the end of the school year and cheer on the dawn of the next. You probably have, or will very soon, s.ee their cheeky viral memes and exaggeratedly exasperated social media posts. I find it all a bit gross. I mean, why do so many parents hate the idea of spending time with their kids during the summer months? Sure, some families have to juggle work, pay for camps, and scrounge up spare change for summer vacation but all those very real issues never seem to be the primary source of all that end of school parental angst. Those parents just come off as nasty whiners about the fact that they are, you know, parents.
Me, I’m happily the polar opposite. Sure, my life as a work & stay at home parent makes things easier but even when I was at a desk job full time I cherished the days when the kids didn’t have school because it meant that I had them. Maybe it’s weird for a parent to say this, I dunno, but I like to be around my kids. The thing about being around my kids though is that my kids are then always around me, which generally-speaking is lovely except my kids turn their tiny noses up at the notion of spending 1-2 hours hiking around in 90 degree weather, and that’s exactly what I’ve been doing every single morning after I drop them off at school.
No more school, no more ‘after I drop them off at school’ hiking. This is my end of school derailer moment.
These early June days are known not simply as the end of school but also, the end of routine. The end of school is a true derailer to my physical activity regiment. Derailers are those uncontrollable things in life that throw off our best laid plans to live better, eat healthier and exercise more. And this derailer couldn’t come at a worst time this year, what with only 30 days left before I spend 7 days hiking, gulp, 89 (eighty nine!!) miles across the whole of England along Hadrian’s Wall. I cannot afford a massive derailer to my preparation and physical conditioning so I’m eating a Pure Protein bar every morning to keep my energy levels high even on the days I cannot bribe convince my girls to join me for a sweaty hike through the tall grasses around the lake of our local park.
What I like best about the Pure Protein bars, aside from the deliciousness, is the fact that each bar only has 1-3 grams of sugar. I can enjoy taking in 20 grams of whey protein (in my favorite Chewy Chocolate Chip flavor) without the guilt of eating something akin to a glorified candy bar. I get authentic fuel from Pure Protein bars so that even when the mercury of the thermometer reaches triple digits and the idea of strapping on backpacks for a hike seems like the craziest thing ever to my daughters, I have enough energy to keep my physical conditioning up as I power through air-conditioned indoor activities like doing the laundry, playing hide and seek, and snuggling up for movie time, which, okay fine, isn’t the least bit active but it sure is one amazing reason having my kids home during the summer is so darn remarkable.
And why would any parent ever bemoan that?
