Last week as Lent began, I set myself a challenge: to do something fun with S every single day, and to post about it on social media. A week later, how are we getting on?
At first, I was worried I wouldn’t find time to do something fun with S. Despite the fact she is only 2, and it’s really easy to find something she will see as fun, I was still worried. Turns out that worry was unfounded, though! She really is very easily pleased. Also I’m finding that making time to do something fun with S, however small or stupid, makes my day better too.
Here are some of the fun things we have done so far:
Going to town after nursery (instead of straight home), and popping into Costa for a drink. We live just along the street from nursery, and usually just go straight back and forth but just a quick potter around town made us both feel like we’d had a treat. S doesn’t get to go into Costa very often so this was a real treat for her!
Allowing ourselves lazy mornings in bed, even when we have to get up for nursery. Just that extra ten minutes makes a massive difference to how the rest of our morning goes.
Pillow fights where Mummy ends up losing badly, buried under all the pillows and teddies.
Tickle fights – otherwise known as Mummy’s revenge!
Coming home from nursery and heading straight for the bedroom for some serious bed dancing
Duvet dens, of course!
Long walks. On this one, we walked along the tow path to visit some horses but we’ve also gone on random long walks with no destination. It turns out toddlers don’t need a destination, just fun stuff to look at.
Splashing in puddles on the way home from nursery. We discovered that there is a little patch at the end of our street that becomes one long puddle after a little rain. We jumped all the way home, then put on some dry clothes and had more fun!
When I first started this project, the main question from people was “won’t that be a really expensive Lent challenge?” As you can see from these photos, we’ve had tons of fun in the last week or so, and so far it has cost me about £3 for our drinks in Costa. Most of the things we’ve done have by necessity taken place before nursery in the mornings, with a couple afterwards. The only things that have taken an hour or more are the walks we’ve been on. But the difference it’s made to our relationship and our moods is massive.
I read in parenting books all the time that if you fill your child’s cup with love they will be more independent and happy the rest of the day. I feel like with this project, we’re putting that into practise. By giving S my entirely undivided attention, and devoting a relatively small amount of time to ensuring she is smiling and giggling, everything else in our lives is beginning to run more smoothly. And we’re only a week in!
1 Comment
Kenzie Smith · 27/02/2015 at 15:37
This is such an awesome idea! I can see how it could get expensive if you were going out and eating or places that cost money, but it seems so far that you guys are having a blast doing stuff that doesn’t cost money! Building forts and having pillow fights is always a blast!