When I was a little I remember watching TV with my little brothers one sunny day in summer. My mom got home from work, saw us inside on a beautiful sunny summer day watching TV. She walked over unplugged the TV and walked away with it. That was that. The next year, she simply unplugged the TV after school got out and said you know the rules. Before long she didn’t have to do anything, we knew there was no TV in the summer. Do you know what I remember about my summers growing up? Certainly not all the TV I watched. I remember the forts, the games, biking, camping, hiking, and so much more.

This year, my two older boys turned 7 and 5. Late in April, I decided. This is the summer. They’re old enough to play in the yard without my constant supervision. This is the summer of NO TV. I made the announcement at the dinner table. Three boys (my husband and the two older boys) exclaimed “WHAT?” Followed by my husband saying, “that’s not going to last.” Thanks for the vow of confidence, by the way, honey. Anyway, I laid out the ground rules. There would be no TV from the last day of school until the first day of school. There would be one night

a week that would be family movie night in which the boys could pick one movie and have popcorn. Also, the rule does not extend to grandparent’s houses. (What happens at

Gramma’s stays at Gramma’s right?)

Summer began. It was hard at first, but I kept reminding them about the rule and eventually, they stopped asking. Did you hear that? THEY STOPPED ASKING. It’s August, just under two weeks before the first day of school. My children no longer wake up and run upstairs to turn on the TV. They don’t even ask to watch a show in the afternoon.

I’m sure you’ve seen a proud grandma in a store with a cart full of pink & purple outfits for her granddaughter. She’s finding ribbons and socks with bows and shouting out “Oh my gosh look at this!” Now picture the same scenario except she’s got a cart full of blue jeans and monster truck shirts. Yep, that’s what I thought, you can’t even picture it!

No one likes to shop for little boy clothes, not even grandparents! It’s just not fun. Boy clothes are not fun. They are primary colors, they are boring, they have trucks on them. Not fun. My girlfriend who has three girls gets adorable clothes from the grandparents for her little beauties. Boys don’t get clothes as gifts. I love shopping for little girl clothes when we are headed to the little princesses birthday party. When we are invited to a little boy

birthday? We avoid clothing like the plague. We also try to avoid toys (see my previous blog post) but I do want the boys to have fun picking out a gift.

What is most frustrating is that clothing seems like a very

logical gift option since boys a) have to wear clothes and b) go through clothes more than girls do.

Boys seem to destroy their clothes. I rarely buy them new clothes because they simply get destroyed with holes, stains and more just as quickly as second hand clothes. So I spend my summers scouring garage sales for good condition clothes and jeans without holes for their school clothes. I collect them in a large utility tote and present them to the boys just before school starts. They LOVE going through all the “new” clothes. (Money saving tip #474)