Summer comes with sunshine, spontaneity, and… snack demands every 15 minutes. With school out, routines fall apart. Mealtimes stretch or disappear. And the pressure to “make it special” can leave parents feeling drained.
Understanding why feeding feels harder this time of year can help you reset expectations, find rhythm in the chaos, and give yourself permission to simplify.
There’s something about summer that makes us think everything should be more fun, more relaxed, more together. But if you’re finding mealtimes harder right now, you’re not alone.
School’s out. Schedules are loose. Kids are staying up later, waking up hungry at random hours, and snacking constantly. The fridge door seems to open every 30 seconds. And you're wondering when “What’s for dinner?” became a full-time job.
Spoiler alert: summer meals are harder—because summer itself is harder.
t’s not just the addition of the heat. It’s also the absence of:
It's Normal
Lack of predictable routines can end up making you feel like a short order cook, whose clients are show 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Here’s the thing: feeding kids isn’t just about the food. It’s also the:
Add in travel, camps with questionable lunches, birthday parties, ice cream trucks, and late-night movie snacks... and it’s no wonder you’re questioning whether they’ve eaten a vegetable this month.
You don’t have to overhaul everything.
You just need to adjust your expectations.
Try this:
In My House
Over the summer, dinner is our anchor meal. It's the one meal that I make consistently, and - especially now that my kids are old enough to make food for themselves - sometimes it's the ONLY meal that I make. This is what I can commit to, this tends to be when we're all home, this is what works for us.
Summer isn’t the time for perfection. It’s the time for flexibility. So if mealtime feels harder right now, don’t blame yourself—or your kids.
Just pick one thing to focus on:
Whatever feels doable, sustainable, and, most importantly, like it brings a little ease back to your table.
Today I want to talk about something that no one really seems to warn you about. Feeding your kids in the summer. It's a lot. I don't know if this happens in your house, but every time I think I'm done cleaning the kitchen, someone asks for a snack. Every time I start prepping on the aisle, someone says, I'm not really that hungry. And every time I sit down to eat something of my own, somebody somewhere needs something.
And if that feels familiar, it's not just you. Clearly, summer feeding is harder, and there is a good reason for that.
During the school year, there's a kind of invisible structure that is built into our day. Kids eat breakfast at predictable times. Lunch happens at school. Dinner usually happens after activities or homework or sports or work. There tends to be a set time. So even if meals are still a little bit chaotic, there's at least a sense of a rhythm. But when school is over…
That rhythm, it evaporates. Suddenly, everyone's waking up at different times. The snack drawer becomes a revolving door of food. Appetite cues get all out of whack, and you feel like you're making meals or cleaning up from them all the time.
Let's break this down a little bit more. There are a few key reasons that feeding feels harder in the summertime, and they're not just about the heat or the lack of routine, like I just said. So here's a little bit about what is really going on. One thing that happens in the summer is that there's no natural anchor to the day. Again, when school is in session, you can build meals around it, around school time. In the summer, though, everything is more fluid and food ends up being a free for all, at least.
It feels like that and often happens in my house. Number two, kids are constantly snacking. They're at home more, they're bored, they're hot, we're inside, they're near the pantry, and they're probably eating more snacks, not because they're always hungry, but because they can.
Number three, you become the default provider. Every meal, every snack, every decision. School lunch gives you a break, but now it's back on your shoulders. All three meals, every day, seven days a week, plus those pesky snacks. For everyone.
Number four, you're probably also juggling work, logistics, and just general summer chaos. Camps have unpredictable lunches. There's last minute travel, birthday parties with cupcakes in the morning. There again, there's no rhythm or consistency, and that ends up putting all of the pressure on you. So you might be feeling like you're doing something wrong, like you should have this figured out by now, like everyone else is managing to keep their kids fed and happy and nutritionally balanced all summer long.
Let me be clear.
That is not what's happening. You are not doing anything wrong. You're just dealing with the reality of summer feeding. And again, that reality is that it is more chaotic. It is less structured and it demands more from you. And it gives you fewer automatic built-in breaks. Of course it feels harder. So now that we've said the quiet part out loud, let's talk about what you can do about it.
And I want to be super clear here. This is not a call to overhaul everything. This is about finding just enough structure to help you feel a little bit more sane and to help your kids eat a little bit more consistently.
Strategy number one is to pick an anchor meal. Instead of trying to fix all the meals and snacks, pick one that you'll treat as your anchor. This could be a simple family breakfast. It could be that you sit down together for dinner most nights of the week or as often as you can. It could be a specific packed lunch for outings that doesn't get negotiated. Choose the meal that makes the most sense for you and your family's current rhythm and then let that be the one where you put your focus
and your energy and our house dinner is our anchor even if it's grilled cheese or a rotisserie chicken again. of the meals it's on my kids. Strategy number two is to create a loose snack rhythm. Notice I didn't say schedule here because summer often doesn't work that way certainly not for me but a rhythm that feels a little bit more possible. So you can try something like a mid-morning snack 10 o'clock in the morning an afternoon snack around 3.
This helps your kids know when food is coming so they're not asking you every 20 minutes and it helps you step out of the role of becoming a short order cook. Strategy number three is to repeat favorite meals and do it without feeling guilt or shame. You don't have to make something different every single day. If your kids love quesadillas, pasta, turkey sandwiches, yogurt with fruit, then put those things on repeat. Summer is not the time to get creative unless you have the time
and you want to. And if you want to do just one little thing, give that same meal item just at a different time. Honestly, giving yourself permission to repeat the things that work most might be the biggest gift you can give yourself. Strategy number four is to adjust your expectations. And this one friends may be the most important. The goal is not to have perfect meals or even balanced ones all the time. The goal is to reduce decision fatigue
lower the pressure, make sure that your kids are getting enough to eat most of the time. And in doing this, you protect your own energy in the process.
Winnie, what are you doing? I'm sorry. Who let you in? That's okay. Can you close the door, please? Cut the weather in. No, yeah, that's fine. Thank you. All right. What does this all really mean? If you have been beating yourself up because meal times feel harder or because you're serving the same thing three nights in a row or because your kids only want snacks all day long, this is for you. You're not behind. You're not lazy. You're not failing.
You are living in a season that comes with more chaos, fewer routines, and way more decisions. So if your food goals right now are to keep people fed, reduce the meltdowns, and avoid becoming the villain, then you're on the right track. Eating kids in the summer is not easy. It asks a lot of you, and it gives you very little structure in return. So this is your reminder that you get to simplify. You get to make choices that protect your people.
you get to do the bare minimum when that's what the day requires and none of that makes you a bad parent. It makes you a smart one, a strategic one. So one anchor meal, create a loose snack rhythm, repeat what works and let the rest of it go. You don't need to make summer magical through food. You just need to make it manageable. And…
If you want a little help creating that rhythm, I've got a blog post with the same strategies plus examples and ideas that you can borrow from. You can find the link to those in the notes below or sign up for our newsletter, The Weekly Parent. You've got this. I'll see you next time. ⁓
