It's hard to hyper-parent at $4.49 a gallon.

We live in the era of the harried, hurried child -- so many classes, so many lessons, so many youth sports. But maybe, just maybe, this summer will be different. Families are canceling trips to Disney in favor of "stay-cations." SUVs are sitting idle. Long-ignored bikes are getting dusted off and pumped full of air.

"It's very hard for me to call an economic crisis a blessing in disguise," says Alvin Rosenfeld, author of "The Over-Scheduled Child: Avoiding the Hyper-Parenting Trap," "but if families get to spend more time together rediscovering what it means to be a family, that would be terrific."

Go canoeing. Take a walk. Shoot some hoops. Fish. You know, summer stuff.

"The most important times in their lives, if you talk to kids, are when nothing is really happening," Rosenfeld says. "Kids have gotten used to the sense that, to be loved, they have to perform for us. Just be together with no goal in mind."

The lazy days of summer: kid-tested, expert-approved.

-- Chicago Tribune