What are we doing with the kids this summer? my husband asks. Camp applications lie on the dining table, brought home in school backpacks. Can we decide tomorrow? I ask. I am racing between the bedroom and washing machine, carrying a load of laundry. The baby just threw up and I am bracing for another night of waking up every thirty minutes to give her three sips of juice.
One week passes. Two. I check in with the mom friend who has hosted swim class every summer for the last five years. Yes, we are on for this summer, she says. And then? An email arrives in my inbox from our favorite museum. Is your family interested in attending science camp? the marketing representative asks. I cannot reply yes fast enough. Why? Because mykids have been begging to attend this camp for the last three years. And this year? For the first time ever, there are age categories that fit all three of my children.
Last weekend at fencing NCAA championships, people kept asking me the same question – do you make money at social media and blogging? And the answer? Is yes.
Do I make a lot of money? No. Do I have the opportunity to make a lot more money than I do? Yes. I turn down more than 90% of the paid opportunities that I am offered. Why? Because I am in this for the long haul. That means I think long and hard about every opportunity I am offered. Many of them are amazing, things that I would have been thrilled to accept in the past. But I know what I am doing and where I am headed. And that means I need to associate myself with places and events that fit my future, not my past.
One of those places? Is Liberty Science Center. Of all the places where I have been over the last ten years, that is one that keeps giving me everything my family and I need, and far more. LSC sponsors events that I host. They serve as a professional reference for work projects. They are a major part of the book I am publishing later this month. Every single experience I had had over the last decade with LSC has more than exceeded my expectations. So when the LSC staff invited my family to spend the month of July at their newly expanded science summer camp? The kids and I were thrilled to accept.
Every time I need something, LSC comes through. And the best part? Every experience is filled with joy. I only do things my children are excited about. And they have been talking for weeks about the fun they are going to have this summer.
Kathy Zucker is an international social media Shorty Award winner, mother of three and a startup founder at companies including the Metro Moms Network®.
