Every mom goes through the internal struggle of deciding to be a stay at home mom and being a working mom. Some people don’t have the option, either way (working or not), but those that do can see positive and negatives of both sides. One of the downfalls of being on the stay at home mom side of things is just that…you are home. You are home all of the time and some stay at home moms have a hard time dealing with the loneliness and lack of adult interaction. In order to avoid this downfall, below is a list of things you can do (from personal experience) that allows a stay at home mom to stay busy.
At Home Activities
Before your kids are at school, you will be home a lot with them. The best way to stay busy at home is to plan activities. Activities can be as easy as reading books, coloring or just playing with toys. However, to keep things more interesting you can plan fun things to do beyond the ordinary. For example, you can pick a theme and create crafts or games to go along with the theme. Pinterest is always a good resource for this. Another idea that I often find helpful is to circulate toys so that the toys can become occupied with toys they haven’t played with in awhile. The option of bringing in outsiders to your house is a good idea as well. Play dates can not only keep your kids occupied and happy, but then you as a mom can have a friend or acquaintance to spend your time with. Just because you are “stuck” at home doesn’t mean it can’t be fun for you and the kids.
Explore
The next step to staying at home is to explore your surroundings. Whether the weather is nice or not, exploring the outdoors is always best. Exploring the environment outside your home or playing with toys in the yard/driveway is a good way to engage your children. You can even create games outside that will keep them occupied. Games with chalk on the driveway or scavenger hunts are always a hit.
Memberships
If you are lucky enough to live in an area that has a lot of attractions close by than the best thing you can do is to purchase memberships for your family. Attractions such as museums, zoos, aquariums and such are always worthwhile. Besides the obvious locations listed, you can also purchase memberships at various amusement parks. As a resident of a suburb of Philadelphia, examples of these venues that I am familiar with are Sesame Place, Hershey Park, Dorney Park, Dutch Wonderland, etc.
Perusing websites like groupon, living social or any local coupon site will also provide discounts on activities for you and your family that can keep you busy. As long as you stay busy as a stay at home mom and enjoy the limited time you have with your small children before they are off to school one day, you will be okay.
