Sorry for the bad pic...it was taken with my phone...
And of course I know that I can bring stuff along to keep them busy, and I usually do if I know we will be at a place that doesn't provide something. But what about when you spontaneously stop someplace, and Nothing.
This happened to us last week. We decided to try out a new little cafe that we had heard good things about. It wasn't planned, but we happened to be out in that part of town and I remembered it.
The food was great, service was good, but it took a while to get our food. (If you are a parent, you know that 30 minutes can seem like YEARS to a hungry kid waiting for food!), and my girls were bored.
Now, I don't know about your family, but when my girls are bored, they get grouchy, and loud, and start getting into trouble. And then I start to get irritable. And then my husband gets snappy. And then I get mad at him for being snappy with me. Now we are fighting.
Sounds like a fun night out, huh?
So when we were out last week and the place didn't have anything for the girls to do, I decided that I needed to come up with a plan for when this kind of thing happens.
Here are a few things I thought of:
-Have the family build a story with each person adding one sentence at a time.
-Play "I spy"...my girls LOVE this but I always forget about it!
-Play '20 Questions' with them
-Practice Math with them
-Play Rock, Paper Scissors
-Play a little game called, "guess what's in Momma's Purse"
-Make stuff with the napkins, (animals etc.) and have the others guess what it is.
These are great ideas, but I wanted more. So, I came across this article from one of my Favorite Sites, and it has some super suggestions for stuff to do when the natives get restless. Be sure to check it out and tell me what you think.
Also, do you have any great ideas that use you when your kids get bored when you're out? Please share!!!
As usual, I will be linking up with We are THAT Family for Works For Me Wednesday. Be sure to hop on over and see all the other great ideas out there!
Guess what's in Mama's purse is a great one.
ReplyDeleteHere is a list I made a few years back for 13 Things to Do with your Family While waiting in a restaurant.
http://havingfunathomeblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/13-ways-to-pass-time-while-waiting-with.html
ooooh, Lots of great ideas there Katy! Thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for the new ideas!! Too often, we forget to take positive action to keep our 6-year-old happy, and then when he starts whining we snap at him because we're hungry and tired too, and it just all goes in a bad direction. :-( Things go a lot better when we remember these word games.
ReplyDeleteMy son had an interesting idea recently when we were walking with a cousin and everyone was tired. He had each of us name "something to talk about" and they all had to be different. Then we each had a turn to work all those topics together into one idea. They were "fireflies" "books" "school" and "magic," so my idea was, "There could be a magic firefly who helps you study for school by hovering next to your book and lighting the most important words to help you focus on them." It was interesting and led to some more conversation!