Whew! It’s been a while since the world has been “normal,” whatever that was. I’m kind of digging the fact that I can get away with calling places saying that I don’t want to have to get my kids out and people do their best to not make me! It is what it is! And I know I’m not the only mom of little kids that feels this way. Not having to get your kids out places that you don’t want to is pretty rad!
I will say, that we are starting to lose it over here! My kids are tired of being stuck at home, they are tired of each other, and tired of us parents. And I’m going to be real, I’m getting tired of them by the ends of the days. I need them to get off me. (I think I gave birth to two kids that are made out of velcro.) The both have to sit on top of me. They both have to have my arms around them, while they sit on the tops of my hip bones. They like to be literally nose to nose with me when they talk to me. And my daughter is only three and she isn’t the strongest speaker, and she insists that I repeat everything that she says to me. (I assume it’s her way of making sure I understood her. She understands way more than she can verbalize, so she gets irritated that I don’t understand every single thing that comes out of her mouth, which in my opinion is totally understandable; I would get pissy if someone couldn’t understand me when I was trying my best.)
You get the picture, we are all tired of each other and always want to be with each other, all the time. And if, your kids are like mine, they are incredibly spoiled with more toys than they could ever want. But quarantine doesn’t give a sh*t! These kids are bored out of their minds playing with the same old toys all day every day! It’s not quite warm enough to go buy kiddie pools and sprinklers yet. (They are coming though.) Luckily we have a cool swing set that the kids love, but they weather isn’t quite dry enough for them to go out as much as we would all like. So the Moore Fam is the definition of “Bored in the house, and I’m in the house bored.”
To remedy this I have been on a nightly mission to try to figure out stuff for us to do without going anywhere. I scroll Pinterest, I scour the feed of my son’s kindergarten Facebook page (His amazing teacher is doing her best to not only distance teach the kids, but she finds and posts things for them to do for fun.) And ask my mom friends what they’re doing with their kids.
I’ve come across an issue, and maybe I’m the only one, but I suspect I’m not. I’m having trouble finding things that don’t cost an arm and a leg, that are readily available, and last longer than two seconds. I come up with at least two to three activities and hope I can accomplish one of them. I like so ask my kids if they are interested in what I found the night before. This keeps me from working hard on an activity for them and they immediately hate it, and refuse to participate.
For instance I got so bored yesterday that I had to make a quick trip to the dollar store so that I didn’t lose my sanity. I went there with a short list of things we actually needed, and intended on finding the kids something to do. While there I quickly grabbed all the things on the list of things that we actually needed, then I made my way to the bathroom area looking for bath time toys or activities. There were none. Even the baby bath toys where gone. So then I went to the toys area looking for games. I couldn’t find one that was young enough for my kids. The few games left on the shelves were intended for older kids or adults. And then I thought puzzles might be fun. I could only find a huge floor puzzle that would be perfect for my daughter, but far too babyish for my son. I couldn’t find one for his age range, the only ones I could find were for much older kids (those million piece project puzzles) or the baby one; so I decided against puzzles. Next I was on my way to the art section, and the only crafts available where paint (un-kid friendly paint), sand art kits, and jewel art kits. These may be fine for other kids, but not mine, maybe when they’re older, but not now. And the selection of regular toys was more of the same, either sold out or not appropriate for one or both of my kids.
At this point, I was about to give up! I was running out of ideas. I turned the corner and it ended up being the party aisle. So I decided to grab some random things to throw together and make up my own Quarantine Party. I got a plastic table cloth, some paper decorations, some candy, a few different options of glow stick jewelry, some of those 70% off Easter eggs, and called it a day! This has been how planning things has gone for me so far! I’m already filling my online shopping carts with things to buy, when I can get all of the things I need for the projects to restocked. It’s making me feel like I have a million tabs open in my brain. There is also some random pop-up playing music. (That’s probably another issue, ha.) Am I the only one having issues planning things because I can’t find the things I need? I have wondered if this is just an issue here where I live, because it’s a tiny rural area. This can’t be going on everywhere. Feel free to comment and let me know what your experiences with these issues have been.
Comments