brat mom summer

As I’ve gushed about in a previous post, Charli xcx has coined this season “brat summer.” For her, that includes raving, 365 partying, wearing last night’s makeup with sheer tops, and unabashedly loving her own music. For me, a mom and writer in Minnesota, Brat summer looks a little different, but that’s what I love about Brat. It’s up for interpretation, its definition growing in scope to hold all of us who aspire to be our unapologetic, authentic selves. Here’s an incomplete list I’ve been keeping for the past few weeks about the way I’ve been Brat this summer.

• Nursing my toddler whenever and wherever we want.

• Disappearing from social engagements to take a nap with my son.

• Reading novels by Evelyn Waugh and Nancy Mitford and giggling to myself hysterically over their characters’ antics.

• Constantly hitting my 15 hold limit on the Libby app and so buying books for my Kindle even though I shouldn’t!!

• Growing my hair out to mermaid lengths. No “mom cut” for me.

• Starting a million post drafts on Substack that all consist of a title and maybe one line of body text to be finished “later.”

• Staying up late to read.

• Writing about whatever I want on Substack without worrying about gaining followers or subscribers.

• Leaning in to half-effort/half-easy dinners when it’s my turn to cook. Bagged salads, baby! A beautiful Chicken Parmesan topped with jarred tomato sauce. Delicately roasted garlic potatoes and a flurry of scrambled eggs.

• Watching rom coms when I have an hour or two to myself instead of doing any number of the “shoulds” on my list.

• I’m still breastfeeding with no end in sight, but I’ve finally been able to ditch the breast pads as I’ve stopped leaking so much. What does this mean? Going back to my no-bra lifestyle!! Charli would approve.

• Turkey sandwich in one hand, Kindle in the other while nursing my toddler during his nap.

• Reading serialized internet romance novels on my cracked phone screen.

• Realizing I don’t have sufficient treats in the house and eating handfuls of chocolate chips instead of baking something to share.

• Wearing the same pair of white cut off shorts every single day.

• Reminding myself that people I’m stressing over are not thinking about me at all and it’s time to move on, sister. Humbling!

• Starting secret artistic projects and telling absolutely no one about them in order to hoard all the magic to my sweet little self. (Will I tease these projects with an airplane dragging a cheeky message across the sky like Charli xcx? No, because I can’t afford that. But I willlll let YOU know here when and if I’m ever ready!)

• Never having my ten-year-old clunker of a laptop charged and so doing everything on my cracked, broken phone like some Gen Z technological wizard (except for the fact that their phone would probably be pristine and safely enclosed in a tastefully “aesthetic” case. I mean all of this as a compliment to Gen Z.).

• Painting my toe nails exactly once at the start of the summer and then letting it all flake and chip away with my steps across the grass and beaches and wooded paths.

• Using CAPS!! and exclamation points!!! Whenever I want!!!!! With no inhibitions maintained from needing to be a SeRIoUs writer!!! Because the need for JOY IS SERIOUS!!!

• Even though autumn is the season where I come alive, I’ve only let myself bake pumpkin bread ONCE this summer. I am soaking up the sun Sheryl Crow style and living in the moment, baby!

• Packing more swimsuits than shoes when I go out of town. Who needs to go out to dinner with cute shoes when you can wear your Chacos to the beach, kick them off or wear them, whatever, and swim til your heart is content and your body remembers that it’s a simple animal who needs sun and sea and air and food and cuddles and honestly?? That’s pretty much it.

How are you embracing brat summer? Sound off in the comments, brats!!

With love from my kitchen table,

Kaia