The Last Day of March: And the Summer Shift No One Saw Coming

We’ve spent all of Q1 talking about what we’re letting go of—mental clutter, emotional baggage, relationships we’ve outgrown, expectations we never asked for, and calendars that are somehow already full… of things that don’t really matter.

So before we step into April (and the chaos of spring-to-summer shift), we’re sharing something real from one of our own.

Katie—one of our therapists, a mom, and a no-BS voice of reason around here—has been doing the same work we ask of our clients: checking her rhythms, her habits, her autopilot patterns, and asking…

“Does this actually serve me and my family? Or am I just surviving out of muscle memory?”

She made a decision. A big one. One that might sound small to someone else, but will feel loud to a lot of moms reading this.

We’ll let her take it from here.

Shift to From Katie:

So… I’m breaking up with summer swim team.

There. I said it.

If you’ve ever been a swim mom, you know what this means. The early mornings. The waterlogged towels in every corner of your house. The smell of chlorine that never leaves your car. The meet days that stretch into forever and the subtle pressure to pretend you love this pace because “it’s what summer’s all about.”

But this summer? I’m out.

And not because we didn’t like it. Not because it wasn’t fun some of the time. Not because my kids begged me to stop (spoiler: they didn’t). But because I finally asked myself:

Am I choosing this because it serves my family? Or because it helps me feel like we’re doing summer “right”?

And the truth?
Swim team was survival.
It gave us structure. It gave me a plan. It filled the time. It looked like a wholesome, active, memory-making thing.

But underneath it? I was tired.
I was busy, but not connected.
We were showing up to everything and not really being anywhere.
And I was measuring our summer in checkboxes, not memories.

This year, I’m done filling time just to feel productive. I’m done being the cruise director of a life I don’t even enjoy living.

This year, we’re not doing swim team.
We’re doing slow mornings and maybe pancakes. We’re doing boredom and books and letting the day unfold and yeah, that will probably include some poolside moments.
We’re doing less hustle, more heart.

I’m not saying you have to quit your thing.
But maybe… just maybe… you check in with your calendar before it fills up again and ask:

Are we surviving summer, or actually living it?

This post is the first in a new series I’ll be writing: “When the Therapist Cancels Swim Team.”
It’s for the moms who are tired of pretending they’ve got it all dialed in.
For the ones who are questioning the pace, the pressure, and the point of all these camps.
For the ones who want to build something different.

More soon.
But for now? Permission granted to opt out. 🖤

— Katie

A therapist. A calendar. And a summer that’s finally not about performing peace. Let’s be bored in the best ways!