Parents Need a Break (Part 3)
This is the third part of the three-part series for parents who are still being at-home superstars with their kids, which means parents who are desperately in need of a break right now. You know who you are. And you know how hard it is to get some alone time these days- especially with kids who, as soon as they stop moving, are looking to YOU to fill the next second (and the next, and so on) with fun creative activities.
Part One was all about using screens intentionally to grab some parental off-duty time. Part Two explored screen-free activities that can occupy kids with sensory needs or who have difficulty self-regulating.
Today will be for the kids who might be a little more independent or enterprising.
Performing arts: Have your kids write and perform an original play or puppet show, including the set and/or costume design. This is a multi-part activity that can definitely take some time. When they are finally ready to perform their show in front of a live audience, all you need to do is smile and applaud.
Create their own board game: This is a great solo activity, or fun for siblings who collaborate well. Make sure they can work together to agree on the rules of the game, what the finished product will look like, and how to troubleshoot, before introducing their game to the rest of the family.
Fort building: Using only materials around the house (i.e., sheets, towels, cardboard boxes, pillows), see who can build the most elaborate or creative fort. The key to this activity is to make sure your kids are able to do this in a different room than where you are trying to relax/catch up on work emails/eat your secret chocolate stash. Plus, when the fort is built, you can buy yourself more time by letting them have a little picnic inside it (because you are SUCH a fun parent!).
Paper chain: This activity sounds really simple, because it is. If you don’t have a lot of paper to donate to this activity, old magazines or junk mail can be a great resource. Kids spend time cutting the strips, and then even more time competing to see who can make the longest paper chain. The bonus to this activity is that, for kids who get really into it, spending an hour or so putting a paper chain together can be really calming.
Scavenger hunt: There are a ton of great scavenger hunts available all over the internet, but you can also challenge your kids to create their own. Maybe they each design a hunt for the other based on things they know are in the house but not easily found. Maybe you simply instruct them to find… 30 things inside that are green, or 25 items that have something to do with travel… you get the idea. Many kids love scavenger hunts, and they can be a safe way to give them a little excitement without too much parental strategizing or involvement.
Make that money: A lot of kids seem eager to earn money, but don’t have the ability to come up with appropriate tasks on their own. I would encourage you, the very tired parent, to put a little thought into this one as it is a great way to take a load off in multiple areas. For example (and always depending on your kids’ ability and attention span), you can assign a monetary value to certain tasks like matching up everyone’s socks, cleaning out the household vehicles (and then washing them), wiping down all the baseboards in the house, weeding the flower beds, organizing the junk drawer… You get the idea. These little jobs can occupy your kids’ morning while you get some space to breathe. PLUS! Now you can take some of the more mundane adulting chores off your ever-growing To Do list. Oh, and if you don’t have cash on hand, you can use tokens, or a tally board, or anything that represents the money your child has made and will be able to spend once it’s safe to go-shopping-for-no-reason again.
After all of that, let me reiterate: Everything in this three-part series of ideas is aimed at giving you some time and space to breathe. Of course being a parent is wonderful and you wouldn’t change it for the world. AND of course you need a break. You DESERVE a break. I hope you find these ideas helpful and that you use them to find a few pockets of quiet, alone time throughout your day. As I’ve reminded you in the last two posts: Even 30 minutes of being ‘off-duty’ can help you cope with the remaining 1,410. Next week, we’ll dive into ideas to occupy kids who are more enterprising and/or respond positively to external motivation.
If you’re able to use these ideas to carve out some time for yourself and find that you could use more support, please feel free to reach out. I’m here, and happy to help.