Lazy days at home with children?

[autumngirl714]

Does anyone else find to hard to relax and stay at home all day with children about?
My boys are 5 and 9. 9 ye old would happily play video games all day (I’ve never allowed this before anyone comes for me!!!), my 5 yr old is a ball of energy and wants to be exploring an playing all the time.

what does a lazy day at home look like for you? And how do you avoid screens in this time!

We haven't managed a whole lazy day with our 5 year old but he loves Lego and can play with that for hours quite happily. Not a full day though!

Age 5 my ds could pay with Legos for four hours straight (had to lure him away for food). He also would enjoy an hour of playdoh.

Nowadays, he’s nearly 7 so he likes Minecraft and it’s hard to tempt him away! He likes drawing from YouTube tutorials, baking, “massive crafting” with whatever giant cardboard delivery boxes we’ve recently received; Gravitrax or Snap circuits; chess.

Any day at home has to be physical too - practising his martial arts drills (usually involves some competitive planks and pushups and sit-ups too) or wrestling.On sunny days like today, wellies on and in the garden to clear up leaves is a back up if we can’t leave the house for some reason!

I've never spent the whole day indoors. We do late morning. We are usually up and dressed by 5:30, on a lazy day we stay in pjs until 9am. Put on chill out music. Colouring, reading, sticker books, quite play (I have a box in the wardrobe of rainy day activities). Before lunch we'll go for a walk., could be the beach, woods, even just around the block. Kids play with sticks &make up stories. Take a cuppa. Afternoon might be den building, Lego etc. Dinner is usually a super simple rotisserie chicken, baguette, salad &. chocolate or pastry. We do stuff during the day but the vibe is chill out.

I didn’t really have lazy days with mine until they were older. My first 2 were girls and would happily have spent all day drawing and doing crafts at the table - they did spend hours doing it but I go stir crazy being in all day so we’d go out and ‘run errands’ for a minimum of an hour just to get out. They always obliged but wouldn’t have insisted upon it themselves. If we had no real errands to run we’d post family some of their pictures, taking the long route to walk to the postbox and back, usually taking along some seeds to feed the ducks (another extension of the walk outside!). Or we’d go out to get ingredients for baking. Or they would be given jobs to ‘help me’ in the garden.
Then I had a son and getting out became a necessity anyway! He really benefitted from being able to run off steam and would settle nicely back at home for a more relaxing afternoon.
Now they’re much older and still will take themselves off for an hour of walking outside if they’re having a lazy day.
The exception to getting outside every day was illness (vomiting and diarrhoea type).

DS is just 7, we've had a couple of Saturdays at home over the last few months at we've had some really busy weeks and down time is important. He likes Lego, train set building, crafts, sometimes he'll have his yoto player on with a story on it while he does other things. His favourite thing to do at the moment is to snuggle up on the sofa he reads a book while I read a book, we have a fire lit and a hot drink, Christmas lights on it's very peaceful. We also make some popcorn and watch a film occasionally.

I think this is an older kid thing like 8+ where you can watch movies, play board games and they are better at amusing themselves etc. Younger kids who have been up since 6am and are bouncing of the walls and have the attention span of a gnat and want your constant attention absolutely not

We do at least 1 day at home every weekend. Kids have all their toys to play with. I'll be watching TV, reading my book, cleaning, washing etc, just getting on with whatever I want/need to do.

They winge every so often but I just remind them of what toys they haven't played with or they can help clean 😂

Kids are 7 and 3, but we've always done it since they were babies

My ds is 12 now. Up until this year we went out every weekend day unless we were ill or had people coming. Even if it was a trip to the shops or a local walk we would get out and burn some energy.
This year my health hasn’t been great so we have stayed in more - A day at home for ds is-
8ish get up /breakfast
9 play on switch
10 get showered/dressed
11 do homework
12 lunch
1 play board games / lego /read or bake
3 watch tv or go on iPad
5 tea
6 play switch
7 watch tv
8 get ready for bed

It is easier to keep him off screens out the house

I can't tell you the last time I've had a lazy day, what does that look like to you? Describe it?
Is it staying in bed extra late in the morning, having a long shower, making a slow unhurried breakfast, going for a walk or leisurely shopping or some sort of entertainment, not cleaning, not being productive, just reading and putting your feet up and that kind of thing?

Yeah that's definitely hard to do with young active children.
Depending on what they're interests are, there are plenty of activities that can be independent and quiet. If your kids love reading? Do they love drawing? Or some other type of craft like that? Teach them knitting or crochet, that's not necessarily an old lady thing, it's great for boys to learn how to manipulate and rope and knots, think of fishermen, they need to know how to do different types of knots. And sailors. And pirates!
Someone suggested legos, building blocks or building sets like that, those are great for quiet play, so long as they don't leave it all over the place at the end. Jigsaw puzzles? Or are some other type of puzzle?
Perhaps if the kids can be trusted to do something relatively quiet relatively not messy that won't result in fighting or yelling or throwing, then you can have a little bit more downtime for yourself?

We spend those days doing any combination of:

Crafts, drawing, painting, colouring in, board games, Lego, baking, watching a film with popcorn, dance tutorials or interactive games (the floor is Lava on YouTube type thing), a little bit of extra time on the tablet.

I'm not generally the stay indoors all day type (like a dog, I need exercising haha) but sometimes if we're a bit run down and the weather is rubbish, it's a lovely treat to have a lazy day.

3 DC aged 7, 3, and 1. We’ve never managed a ‘lazy day at home’ since the oldest was born. If we don’t leave the house at some point, even just to walk up to the shop, we have a house of gremlins by 5pm.

However, I remember many lazy days as home as a teenager, so hopefully that will be realistic for us… in 10 years!!

I could never spend the whole day at home. I would always take mine out so they could get rid of their excess energy! If I wanted a lazy afternoon we would watch a classic like Mary Poppins or Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

I am such a homebody and mine enjoy staying home as much as me. We have Lego out, they currently have some costumes on and running around playing something or other, I have one playing console games. I pretty much leave them to it and potter around.

We need regular resting days at home due to my children’s disabilities. DD6 and DD8.

We generally start with a joint long bubble bath that usually turns in to a long potion-making session (lots of cheap shower gels/shaving foam from £land). Deal with braiding hair etc and they both help me with some housework, then we do art and craft/colouring in for an hour or so, play board games, chess and cards, have a dance party, do yoga, then a read or Lego/beads/gemstone excavation. There’s often den building. They both help make the meals and do the washing up. It all just flows fluidly and slower, no rushing needed. Some of it I’m with them, plenty I’m not.

They are the best of friends, which makes it far easier as no refereeing is needed.

We always go out in the morning - swimming, soft play, long walk etc - and only then will my DS8 be able to relax. He’s full of beans and would be too bored at home all day but is fine with half day. I don’t think I’ve spent a whole day at home in 8 years. DD on the other hand is happy to just potter about at home drawing, painting etc

Get a grip! You just look a fool spouting this

Bit rude. You ok?

I cannot spend the entire time inside with the kids.

We have to at least go in the garden, or local park that is really close.

Most days we have an am activitiy then a PM activity (swimming, library, for example)

My granddaughter has her friends after school one day a week.
they dance to music, make mats from hamma beads. Craft from cardboard or play with dolls. They’re all 7 and it’s amazing to listen to the imagination they use.
We are lucky enough to have a toy room there is so much fun making a den from a cardboard box. That’s a relaxing fun day for any gran to participate in. I didn’t have so much time first time so making the most of this time around.

I can’t do it when it’s just me, but when DH is in we can do it fairly easily. DD1 (3) is really happy to just sit with him and do whatever he’s doing (as a result she’s a football fanatic!) and DD2 (1) is a dream, will either entertain herself with her toys or play with me.

Today was:

DD2 woke up at 6am but I brought her to bed with us and she slept until 8am
DD1 woke up at 8:15am
We had breakfast and played with toys all morning
DD1 then sat with DH through an afternoon of sport (having lunch in the middle), he teaches her everything she needs to know (or doesn’t need to!) and she takes it very seriously.
DD2 and I played together and then she sat in with me whilst I did some housework
Girls had dinner
The four of us watched a movie together then both girls had bath then bed. Now DH and I are watching the football with a bottle of wine and a curry. DS17 has been in and out all day but didn’t spend much actual time with us until 8 when he came down for the football and curry

Mine are older - 16, 14 with autism & ADHD, & 11. We still don't really do lazy days at home! If we do, I find their behaviour is markedly worse. We have to get out for a walk or visit grandparents or play football at least once in the day. If bad weather, something indoors eg last weekend church Christmas tree festival etc. At home, they play board games, Lego, crafts, have a maximum of 2 hours on devices (at weekends), help me cook. Also they do homework & we have a nice dinner.

I don’t think the word ‘lazy’ is compatible with two young kids, whether at home or out. My house would be destroyed if I left my 5 year old up to his own devices.

Only time we’ve truly had ‘lazy’ days is during illness. My kids had a bug in the summer and I was nearly there too - all day on the couch. Is it bad to say it was bloody bliss? (obvs apart from the sick!)

We have slower weekends, and we do involve screens for that, with limits. Just find a balance, OP. If you want an hour on the couch just set an alarm and let them have their screens. Life is so packed and kids do so much more now than I did as a kid. The standard feels a lot higher for parents too. Although I know my kids have it a million times better than I did, I still find myself getting sucked into all the messages about what I ‘should’ be doing. Exhausting.

I’ve had plenty of lazy days at home this last month as my 5 year old DS has been recovering from surgery and I’m also heavily pregnant. Our days have consisted of movies, playing on the switch, building Lego, board games/maths games (he’s obsessed with maths!). He’s usually bouncing off the walls and apart from surgery/illness I don’t think we’ve ever had a day inside, usually drives us both insane!

I mostly like to make sure my daughter gets some time outside as she can go a bit stir-crazy being a generally active girl, but I also think she benefits from the odd day doing absolutely nothing. One of my favourite quiet home days was one day when we put on the TV and she sat on the floor and sorted out her stickers for ages. Its a really cosy memory. I'm definitely a proponent of letting children be bored and finding their own things to do but I make sure she does have things she can do that with. No point leaving a 10 year old with a wooden spoon and a pot. She's always got plenty of paper and crafting things, slime and sand, games, she's still got a box of random small toys that she likes to go through sometimes. The later in the day it gets the more disposed to reading she is, which I like to see. She did used to always say she was bored and I would just say 'you can find something to do', and she always did.