Do you feel the same way sometimes, having that guilty feeling when your kids are at home during vacation and you can’t just bring them out everyday? I do. I am a work at home mom and there’s no way I can leave my job. They are in vacation but I am not. If I don’t work, I won’t get paid.
After praying to God to give me patience and wisdom (believe, I need to do this when I feel impatient), I realized that there’s no reason to be guilty. We are doing a great job providing for our families, and for WAHMs like me, it is sometimes harder because you see all these house work and you still have to work. There are ways to work around the boredom and make the vacation days fun and fruitful instead.
You know what, vacation from school is the perfect time to do many things. Maybe at first, they seem to be not so much fun, but these learning experiences are necessary. The kids may not realize it at first but we moms do know that the sooner they learn these things, the better they will be later on in life.
1. Teach them housework
Because I have 2 girls who are nearly teens, teaching them housework has become a great responsibility for me. During school days, except for fixing their own things, my husband and I help each other for all the housework, and just let them focus their time studying. On school vacations, we try to let them do new house chores one at a time (washing the dishes, cooking rice, setting the table, fixing the table after eating, fixing the bed, organizing their cabinets are just examples)
2. Play with their siblings
When your kids get to be tweens, some of them meet new friends and sometimes, they want to hang out more with their friends than their siblings. During vacation and they are stuck with their siblings, they don’t have any choice but play or talk to each other. My daughters fight most of the times, trivial things, but we see that they have fun with each other. They just don’t realize it.
Maya Oven Toaster Chocolate Fundge – my youngest prepared the materials by herself.
It was her first time to bake (they are so fond of watching all these baking videos online) one so we chose something simple, one which she can read and follow by herself.
Her ate helping her fixing the chocolate fudge before baking
3. Improve old skills or learn new skills
Your kids most probably know skills (aside from their geniuses in using the tablet or Playstation) like drawing, singing, playing the keyboard or drums. Any skills that they have, or talent, vacation time gives them enough time to improve. More time to play keyboard, experiment new colors or styles on their drawings, maybe sing new songs on the videoke and reach higher notes.
Or they can learn new ones. I’ve always told my kids to use their time wisely and try to learn, learn and learn because whey get older, even if they want to learn new things, they will just be too busy to do so. On weekends, when schedule is more relaxed and we can go out for leisure, going to the bookstore or yes, browsing the internet for affordable workshops or books, will help to find new interesting things to try.
Her finished Maya Oven Toaster Chocolate Fudge
Ate likes to cook and try new things in the kitchen.
This lunch, it was her first time to fry chicken (her favorite) with Ajinomoto Crispy Fry.
4. Teach values
Good values start at home and family values differ from each other. Kids learn values from school (both good and bad) and as parents, we can take their off time from school to teach them the disciplines we want the kids to carry over when they get older. For example, religious values, the kind of respect we want from them, the traditional values we have in our families, and so on.
5. Get closer with each other
You will agree to me that kids grow up too fast and developing our relationship takes time. Even if we are their parents, relationships need time to be nurtured. Quantity of time is as much as important with quality time. School days are over and we got more than two months to stay closer, wake up together, pray and eat together.
Believe me, all these require patience, and most of the time you need a partner, an assistant or somebody who can help you, even if you are at home. If you don’t have one, maybe you can make do by doing things more slowly or one at a time.
My kids are boys and it is very difficult for me. I have tried all of your suggestions before but proves ineffective and they get bored again after doing the same things.
Boys tend to like more action than the kinds of activities I’ve listed out. When you run out of things to have them do, just let them be by themselves. Kids are pretty creative, and that’s exactly my point that we parents shouldn’t be guilty when they get bored because eventually, they will figure out how they can have fun even inside the house.