To ask what on earth a bored SAHM can do?!

[MamaCub]

4 month old baby. Cold and rainy outside. Only ideas are to go shopping but I go at least twice a week and my bank account needs a rest!

Any tips before I lose my mind?!

I used to hate days like this, OP. If I ever started clearing out a cupboard, it seemed that at the moment when everything was on the floor and I was about to put it away again, DD would start grizzling and several hours possibly days later it would still be on the floor & really irritating me.
Are you in an NCT group or do you know any other mums with little babies? I bet at least one of them is feeling equally bored. Are you brave enough to text them? I used to hate it as sometimes everyone would reply to say they were busy and so I felt really unpopular but I gradually discovered there was another lady I really liked who was equally bored & lonely and we ended up meeting up several times a week, sometimes for things like rhyme time, other times to do wholesome activities like take the babies for a walk in the woods & other times just co-ordinate when we went to the supermarket and having a coffee in the cafe there before hand. Hey, I even accompanied her to IKEA one day as it was better than being stuck at home by myself.

Start springcleaning?

Empty out the pots and pans cupboards and let the babe bang away on those with a wooden spoon while you scrub them out?!

Toddler groups/children centres, museums, libraries, swimming, going to other parents houses or having them over and occasionally soft play.

Weekly routine somewhere to go out to every day kept me sane - get out of house during the morning then dinner afternoon napping/housework.

spring walk you could be me, fast-forward a few years. DS is nine months and I can honestly say I haven't been bored since he was born

I would love to know how you are bored op. Please tell us your secrets! 🙂

I really hate this passive-aggressive smug response to a very innocuous question from a relatively new parent - is it really necessary? If you have time to be a dick on the internet perhaps your life isn’t as super busy and exciting as you want everyone to think it is.

OP, I’d say use the day to have a clear out and list some stuff on gumtree. It’s a bit addictive for me because I love having the space cleared and you get a bit of extra cash for coffee and cake 👍

Definitely a cheap or free museum or art gallery, something that interests you. Make the most of your baby being small and portable, once you reach the toddler years it's much more difficult.

When mine were tiny I took advantage of local weekly classes - music, massage, and swimming, and took them to playgroups. Also ditto the cuddling on the sofa with Netflix, that was lazy but lovely. Now that they are at school I seem ridiculously busy just keeping up with the housework/paperwork/cooking/elderly parents that hometime comes around fast then it's taxi time all over the place for activities. Enjoy this peaceful time.

Ooo, 4 months is a brilliant age to do your own stuff! Museum, library, garden centre, read a book, coffee out...

I cultivated a mum friend circle (baby groups attendees etc) so we tended to circulate around houses for coffee (or wine)

Ooo, 4 months is a brilliant age to do your own stuff! Museum, library, garden centre, read a book, coffee out

I agree with this. My 9 month old now tolerates none of that shit, so take advantage of it while you can.

Also baby cinema. If you have one near by I can’t stress how brilliant it is. But all over by about 7/8 months so make hay!

Bake, clean, read, tidy, knit, sew, watch TV, do a jigsaw puzzle, Mumsnet, play on Sporcle, do your PPI claim, research your next holiday, ...

What did you do in your spare time before you had a baby?

Nothing to add as loads of suggestions already made so I'll say again:

• make mum friends at local baby groups
• mum and baby fitness class
• swimming
• rhyme time at the library
• baby sensory class
• go have a coffee and read the newspaper in a cafe while baby naps
• have a bath / do your nails / hair mask / face mask etc.
• watch trash TV
• wrap up warm and weather-proof, stick rain cover over the buggy and go for a walk
• feed ducks in the park
• cook or bake something nice

Christ. Those were the days! Now I'm a SAHM to a toddler (and a newborn) and never get a moment to myself. In fact I was just having a wee on the loo when my toddler walked in to see what I was doing because I had left the sitting room

I've downloaded the kindle app to my phone as my kindle is too big to hold in one hand whilst holding the baby. I'm working my way through my back catalogue whilst he sleeps on me, I can recommend
For those that have babies that only sleep in the pram or the car, try a nursing chair. We had a standard rocking chair but no dice, we've recently swapped to an old nursing chair and it's been a revelation! He sleeps for hours on me in it!

Make some money...! Matched betting and survey sites like Appen. I'm making a lovely pot up in my free time, about £3k since mid January. Come over to the 'make £10 a day thread' some amazing ideas. I'm currently averaging £50 a day.

I just wish I'd started earlier!

Come to my house. I will cuddle your baby and you can mind my two year old who has a cold and is in a stinking mood? Genuine... Please??

I used to put him in the pram, walk to the local Aldi (about 20 mins away) buy good for tea, and then walk home. But I'd get a sandwich on the way so when ds dropped off in the pram I'd park him in th e front room and sit down with a hot tea and my butty and watch TV (usually for about four minutes before he realised I was neither walking him or being entertaining and wake up.) I miss baby days

No one else have a baby with huge disdain for activities? Took DS to baby massage he screamed, no tears, just anger. His eyes seemed to say 'where the fuck are we, why are there lots of middle class women wafting funny smelling oils around, talking in weird baby voices, take me home so I can watch that funny cat lick himself'

zippy my toddler was like that and still is. We don't do any playgroups at all any more, it's pointless, he hates them.

Clearly inherited my misanthropic tendencies! It's his birthday in two weeks and when I asked him what he wanted to do for it he said "a party with cake but I don't want any singing or talking"

I hear you, kiddo.

@saxatablesalt 😁 he sounds like my kind of person! DS does love swimming and being outside, so we walk on the beach and along the seafront a lot and have just started hiking once a week with my dad (retired, bored) and the dog. He's just a bit anti social like his father. We've had plans with other people or visitors for the last six days straight, today we are napping and Netflix, dinner is in the slow cooker, best day for a week!

Enjoy the last dregs of peace you will ever have in your life... feet up.. coffee and biscuits.. playing human mattress whilst binge watching series... it all ends too soon and you'll be plagued with CBeebies and running round picking up toys and hiding anything in arms reach.. 😂

MamaCub must've found something to do!

@Springwalk

How amazingly rude.

I have a flat and am on top of housework, which means I do have a good few hours most days where I have nothing to do.

I just feel I am wasting away this precious time I have off work with my baby. Sitting in front of Netflix is making me feel like a couch potato but when there is bad weather I find there's fuck all to do apart from shopping.

Thank you everyone for your suggestions! I love the baking one... I have a large family of men who I'm sure will appreciate some home baked goods - I will raid Tesco tomorrow to make some treats!

OP I don’t think she was being rude at all.... she was just saying she can’t imagine because she didn’t have easy babies.

I didn’t either, my DD was a refluxy, colicky, high needs nightmare who would only nap in the sling and would wake up if a pin dropped.... oh and also if I sat down. I had to be moving at all times but in a quiet place.. she hated being out and about at that age.... it was hugely limiting

The idea of a baby who will happily snooze in their pram besides you while you have a leisurely lunch in a busy cafe or alone in their cot while you get some house work done is as baffling and alien to me as it is intriguing!!

DS is only marginally better (still refluxy and only naps in the sling or car seat) but at least he can sleep through noise!

I didn’t either, my DD was a refluxy, colicky, high needs nightmare who would only nap in the sling and would wake up if a pin dropped.... oh and also if I sat down. I had to be moving at all times but in a quiet place.. she hated being out and about at that age.... it was hugely limiting

I had one of these too with DD1 but was still bored. Bored of the same shit, different day!

Yep, it’s boring, you’re tired & getting out is a massive faff. But you have to get out of the house everyday OR you will probably go insane. If you’re not too tired/insane already, go driving and see friends or a museum. I didn’t go out for about a year (alright, 2 years) other than a pootle to baby groups, the garden centre & baby cinema, then home to eat cake & watch Netflix. Soon it will be wails for biscuits and fucking blippi while it takes you three months to watch half a series of new True Detective over an iPad :/

Well yes it’s a different kind of bored. More like completely and utterly want to kill myself exhausted sort of fed up rather than “bored” per se which is more associated with being “at a loose end” in my mind. DD made sure I wasn’t at a loose end for at least the first 2 years!!