Adrienne Hedger is a Southern California-based cartoonist whose work makes painfully clear that — for all the struggles of parenting during the school year — the summer offers its own set of challenges.
Like blowing up inflatable toys:
Fighting over summer camp:
Trying to get your kid to do SOMETHING productive:
And, of course, listening to all of the whining:
Hedger gets most of her inspiration from the summers (past and present) she's spent with her daughters, ages 15 and 12.
Hedger tells BuzzFeed, "My younger daughter sees summer as a time to let all personal hygiene go."
"She also dreams up the craziest activities, like mixing every item she can find in the pantry, or seeing what happens if she tries to somersault down the stairs."
"My teenager, meanwhile, can barely function before 10 a.m. One summer we went on a vacation to Yellowstone National Park and we kept getting up at 5:00 a.m. to go look at wildlife. She barely survived that trip."
As Hedger's Yellowstone trip story suggests, summer vacations with kids can be as maddening as staying home:
Gotta love those trips to theme parks:
For all the summer struggles, though, there are lots of fun/funny moments. Like watching your kid try to "dive":
And a lot of really cute moments too:
In the end, Hedger says she hopes her cartoons give parents a Iaugh when they need it most. "As parents, we’re all struggling with the same basic issues. We’re all in it together."
You can check out more of Hedger's cartoons on Instagram and Facebook.
