How do you get through the holidays?

[MummaBear03]

DD had the little girl from next door over, but she has major anger problems that I think stem from the fact that she's in Year 1 and not able to talk very well or get her point across, but either way she gets rather violent so I sent her home. Now the little girl from the other side is over playing. That's really cool because those kids haven't been allowed over for a long time because their mother didn't like me, she thought I was racist but it's just that she had a go at me and I had a go at her, race didn't come into it. I think she's seen that I have all sorts of people over here and now realises I'm not racist so her daughter is allowed to play again.

She was whinging at me all morning til about 10 when a friend came over that she was bored. We made a book today together, we played Lego, she's played with our puppy, but she just really wanted kids over. Now the little girl from over the road is home and wants to play with her as well which is cool.

But it's day 1 of the holidays and already she's started with the "I'm bored, I want a friend over" whinging!

So how do you cope???

[~BEXTER~]

I am wondering what to do for the holidays too.

We have spent the morning cleaning now Keiara is having lunch, when she has finished we are going to go and get a drink from maccas so she can run around.

I will be taking her to a indoor play center tomorrow.

We are going to the zoo in the 2nd week, but i have no idea how i am going to keep her entertained.

if i lived in Sydney I would catch a train somewhere as it is cheap and gets us out of the house.

but I know we are going to struggle.

Keiara doesn't have kids around here that i could invite over to play with her.

Maybe set up craft stations, build cubby houses, parks??

I have no idea

[moozle]

She's old enough to create activities for herself. Maybe because you always find things for her to do, she's unable to play creativly by herself so she keeps asking you to come up with ideas for her. Next time she says she's bored, write up a list of chores that you need done and a list of activities that she can do by herself (drawing, dolls house, making a cubby house, puzzles, books, craft) and tell her that if she's ever bored, she can make her way down the list OR she can do one of the activities on the list or find something to play with in her room.

[MummaBear03]

She can play by herself. She spent 2 hours playing in her room on her room without making a sound, and does that often :confused:

She just really likes to have interaction for at least part of each day. I don't think that's anything I've done wrong.

She can't read yet either.

[Ana Gram]

It's nothing you have done Mummabear. DD gets a bit bored too. Even though she has been raised a lone child and does have the ability to entertain herself, she has been at school and has gotten used to having other people her age and size around.

I'm finding holidays a struggle because I don't get a break from uni and have not managed to do anything with DD at home :(

[MummaBear03]

I'm still studying too. Makes it hard when there's no care over the holiday period too hey. It's easier over the Christmas holidays and September holidays because that's when people tend to take time off to go away places so there are vacancies in childcare, but that's not always the best thing because I know over the Christmas holidays DD attended about 5 different centres in that time and that's not good for her to do that, it's really quite damaging for her emotionally but that was the only option.

[moozle]

She can play by herself. She spent 2 hours playing in her room on her room without making a sound, and does that often :confused:

She just really likes to have interaction for at least part of each day. I don't think that's anything I've done wrong.

She can't read yet either.

Sorry, I thought you said she'd been at you all day that she was bored. If she's happy to play alone, that's great. I know she can't play alone in her room ALL day but if you organise a few activities together every few days, it should keep her boredom away. You could do baking with her, make cards, go to the park. Does she have grandparents that live close by? Must be hard trying to study with a little one around. I don't know how you do it. I had enough trouble when it was just me!

[Amara]

I used to look after my exs little girl during the holidays and I and I would plan our days around free activities usually at shopping centres. We also did the park and cooking cup cakes etc. I would also visit a craft shop and get a cheap craft activity for her to do. All that kept her fairly well occupied. I am starting to do the same with my son.

[Petlover]

I understand where you are coming from, it is quite normal that she wants to spend part of her day with other kids. for my 6 year old daughter, neighbours have been our saviour and I make alot of effort to connect with the parents of these kids and have their daughters over quite often. These mums might be looking for things to do as well, maybe you could offer to have their girls over or to the park a couple of afternoons this week and maybe your daughter could do something with them.

[MummaBear03]

I don't like our neighbours. They're next door revving the car so loud I can't even hear DD talking to me and she's right beside me! We ended up going camping in a caravan park with other families who had kids around her age so she had a great time, hitting the pool every morning before breakfast (6am in the pool, then on the last day I realised the pool isn't meant to be used until 8:30am, oops) then in the playground while I cooked breakfast on the bbq all with other kids she'd met during our trip. I'll be working through the next lot of school holidays so she'll have other kids for at least half the holidays, if not all the holidays. She was happy to be back at school and sport this week though.