I never considered myself an indoor parent. At least not on purpose. That was until a friend of mine called me one while they have their kids outdoors every chance she gets. It’s just we are indoors a good portion of the time. And let me be clear too, while we spend a great deal of our time indoors. We don’t spend it on tablets and gaming. The TV is always going with background noise but we also are playing with blocks or train sets or building towers or playing with play dough. My husband and I have decided to hold off as long as possible I. Terms of getting them a hand held device connected to the internet. Whether that be something like a tablet or Nintendo Switch.
For me, my kids are really small. As they get bigger we do more and more. Right now as they are learning more and growing things just get easier. As I write this it’s nearly February and negative 15c so for the amount of time it takes us to get ready and then to go out for 30m before the “I’m cold” starts it just isn’t worth it. And that’s okay. Summer time it just depends. We have air conditioning and if it’s too hot it’s just not enjoyable. And that’s okay also. However we don’t have a big pool or anything fancy in that regard so obviously as a goal when the kids continue to age we will hopefully have that too. Thus opening up lots of different activities to do outside.
Another thing to be mindful of at least for me, was I was pregnant a lot in the last few years. It was a lot on me with each pregnancy to be carting the kids in and out and here or there for the sake of it. We are not a family that needs to take kids to every seasonal, expensive event for those “Instagram family photos” to show we went. We do our own things. And then on top of it we also would have things like naps and trying to do things around meals too.
As I mentioned we are a very low tech family currently. I know. Rare right? Our oldest is nearly 5 and him and our middle guy have hand held all in one 30-ish games as their “video games” but they don’t play anything remotely connected to the internet. We watch YouTube but it depends on the day. They don’t really know how to search videos but our oldest can start or click past a commercial. We don’t want our kids to be sitting with family or friends and playing games. If we can prolong them using this that’s what we want to do. That doesn’t mean we are limited. In recent years one thing we have been doing is for holidays getting a few new board games. Just simple ones that the kids can play. Even matching ones are really easy and fun too. One thing my boys also love to do is play with play dough. Obviously this can get messy if they aren’t fully aware of how to play but it is exciting. We get different tools and kits and then replace the dough. The kids love to show their skills off by making meals or items with the dough too. It also helps teach responsibilities in how to properly put it away afterwards so the dough doesn’t dry up either. They also like coloring however if markers are involved a bit more mindful supervision will save a lot of headache. Another thing they do is play with their train set and dinky car ramps. My fellas are also really into independent play too which I think is incredibly important as far as life skills are. Mostly because it helps if I have to do things like flip the laundry or something like cook dinner. Things that they are able to be trusted to play with and stay safe.
When are we going outside? Whenever we want! As the winter begins to fade away and summer and spring begin to come. We will be trying our best to do more. Whether that’s hanging around on the deck or going for walks around the community. We will be doing more and more as we always have done. There is nothing against fresh air. We love fresh air. But we also love indoors too. And truth be told, my oldest started pre-primary this year and while he plays outside multiple times a day, he also loves relaxing and watching his train track set up in different figures too. And as spring approaches we will play with water and bubbles among other outdoor activities like chalk and stuff too. Not pressuring yourself to get outside for certain amounts a day makes things far easier as a parent. I mean who doesn’t love a minimal pressure lifestyle especially as a parent?
Whether you have your kids outside every second of the day. Or you stick around indoors. There really isn’t any right or wrong way to parent. And just because you may be leaning one way doesn’t mean you aren’t another and vice versa. Stop putting expectations on yourself with parenting and caring what your friends do with their kids. As long as yours are happy and healthy it doesn’t matter where they play or how much money is spent to go to the latest fade outing that popped up around your city. You’re kids aren’t going to remember the moments when you got mad at them for not sitting still the extra 5 minutes for your perfect photo. But they will remember the fact that they got to spend time with you, their family, regardless of what you do with the precious time.
Stacey J. Girard 