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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Week of torrential rain with 2 under 2

44 replies

Onemorecrisp · 09/06/2019 14:56

What will you be doing with a baby and toddler in a week of rain? It’s due to pour everyday here upto Sunday and I’m worried!!
Cannot use the car as it’s in the garage so no soft play option, help!

OP posts:
woodcutbirds · 09/06/2019 15:22

Stuff we used to do:

Water play
Jelly play
Playdough
Bricks
Duplo
Teddy bears picnic
Story time
Silly dancing to music
Make a den
Jumping in puddles (not so fun for the baby but if they can nap in the pram under a cover)
Lots moreTV than usual Grin
Silly games like putting a bear in a weird place and then playing Find Teddy
Ball games - rolling the ball across the floor to each other
Singing nursery rhymes
Play Copycat - you pull a face or make a silly noise and they copy then it's their turn. Even the baby can join in without realising.

BeanBag7 · 09/06/2019 15:28

What do you usually do? I would probably just go out in the rain - baby in pushchair with raincover and toddler in a puddle suit. At this time of year even if it's raining it's not cold so if you get wet it doesnt matter. Dry clothes and a hot chocolate when you get home.

RuggerHug · 09/06/2019 19:12

Jumping in puddles with the baby wrapped up in the pram is a good way to tire out a toddler with wellies!

Skyejuly · 09/06/2019 19:14

I do what I normally do but with boots and raincoats!

Didntwanttochangemyname · 09/06/2019 19:35

You won't melt in the rain, go and play in puddles!

Kanga83 · 09/06/2019 19:38

Rain cover over baby, puddle suit and wellies on the buggy board and off you go. We walk everywhere rain or shine . Library, minibeast adventure, duplo, make a show, collect leaves, stomp in puddles, simple experiments collecting how much rain falls etc

orangeshoebox · 09/06/2019 19:41

what's the temperature outside.
we once had an epic holiday in a cabin in northern sweden where it rained all the time.
it wasn't cold so we did puddle walks (roads were dirt tracks with lots of puddles), pond dipping, duck races...
hot chocolate and warm bath each evening.

MrTumblePulledAKnifeOnMe · 09/06/2019 19:54

Also have a 2 year old and rain is forecast all week, so watching with interest.

Car will be in the garage so looks like jumping in puddles every day for us, so no soft play respite 😆

FreudianSlipSlide · 09/06/2019 20:16

Any museums nearby? We will be spending a week in them, even if they only like the security signage, the cafe and the weird stuffed animals.

Onemorecrisp · 09/06/2019 21:36

Mine seems to go wild if kept indoors and has tantrums over everything. Atleast it’s not cold I guess, should be 17 degrees.

OP posts:
Onescaredmuma · 10/06/2019 00:33

Watching for ideas I have 19 month old and 4 and 6 year old the older 2 have caught the chicken pox toddler had over 1/2 term but at least we could play in the garden over 1/2 term. Toddler also has respitory problems a cold is a big risk to him so I can't afford to let him out in the rain.
For what it's worth our usual rainy days activities are homemade play doh, duplo, tea party (I make tiny sandwiches and serve them and cake or biscuits on a cake stand.) Jigsaws with the older 2 if the toddler naps homemade lava lamps, lemon volcanoes, or other mini science experiments and netflix.

StripyHorse · 10/06/2019 08:48

Can you get to your local library? If so that's always worth a try. It might also be worth checking if they have toddler session as these are usually free.

Cooking / baking. 'I can cook' if it is still on might be a good source of inspiration (my DCs are well beyond CBeebies so I am put of touch).

Make an inside

StripyHorse · 10/06/2019 08:48

Make an inside den (accidentally deletes the last word).

IvanaPee · 10/06/2019 08:51

Um...put them in rain gear and go about my day! Genuinely.

orangeshoebox · 10/06/2019 08:52

that thing with corn flour and cold water?

Fibbke · 10/06/2019 08:58

How did you think you'd cope with normal British weather when you decided to have kids?

Go out in the rain and then watch tv.

CoraPirbright · 10/06/2019 09:01

Just to add to the ideas I demolished the sofa cushions (and all the other cushions and duvets in the house) once and built my own soft play/assault course thing in the sitting room!

SnowyAlpsandPeaks · 10/06/2019 09:02

Bake
Make play dough
Play with play dough
Make dens
Paint
Draw
Puzzles
Have play baths
Read books
Go out in the rain
Go squelching through mud
Make paper mache (sp) balloons
Face painting
Library
Swimming
Go on a bus ride (my ds loved this as they were always in a car)
Sort out toys to keep and ones that aren’t played with to give away to other children
Get an old Argos catalogue and cut and paste
Tea party
Teddy bears picnic
Singing songs
Duplo
Use a bed sheet as a parachute- singing songs, shaking it, throwing it in the air and diving underneath
Museums
Feed the ducks
Walk around the ponds, through the woods, in the park- just let them explore, look at things, pick up things, don’t worry about getting wet and muddy it’s part of the fun

My Brian can’t think of anymore right now, I’ll add later if I can!

Notverygrownup · 10/06/2019 09:13

Yy to making a den (large sheet over dining table. Cushions inside. Something heavy on the top to hold the sheet on, but beware - if you tug the sheet something large can land on your head)
Yy to welly walks/puddle jumping, then home for hot chocolate and a bath. (I used to put mine in the bath 2 or 3 times a day at that age on wet days - bottles/cups/teapot for water play)
We loved building towers with stacking cups then rolling a ball along the carpet to try to knock it down. Also had an indoor skittles set.
Yy to using the cushions to build your own soft play area.
Baking
Colouring
Large cardboard box - from local supermarket - decorated to be a car/plane/ship
CBeebies

Split the days up into sessions - an hour (45 mins?) den making, then snack time. Puddle jumping then back to the bath. Lunchtime. Cbeebies then lego/cup stacking. Baking then bathtime. Tea/supper then book time. You dont have to stick to the timetable, but it helps to break up the day.

Can you get a bus and go swimming/get to a library/museum?

Best of luck

HairsprayBabe · 10/06/2019 09:36

My mum used to send me out to do "gardening" when it was pouring it down when I was a toddler.

Stuck me in coat and willies, gave me a bucket and sent me out into the garden to collect as many snails as I could find.

She used to watch me from the conservatory as my sister was a newborn. This only works if you have a safe secure garden - no ponds or ledges etc.

FurrySlipperBoots · 10/06/2019 13:19

Get a puddle suit for the toddler (should be able to pick one up on Amazon Prime) and some sexy waterproof trousers and wellies for you. Raincover on the pram and go to the park/for walks/to look at shops. Pets at home is good just to have a mooch round, talk about what you would choose for your fictional pets, see what noise the different rattling/squeaking dog toys make, admire the animals (a good lesson in being respectful and calm around them, or you leave) feel the textures of the different pet beds (make sure hands are sparkling clean first!)

Do you have a library within walking distance? That's always a great wet weather option

For at home, a sensory-tray-a-day helps keep the boredom at bay - dried rice (you can dye it if you have food colouring and hand gel) pasta, jelly, sand (if you have a sandpit you can just bring some in and have it in a shallow box in the kitchen instead. If the sandpit sand is damp dry the indoor sand out, or vice versa), beans (NOT kidney beans, they're toxic raw) etc etc.

How old is the baby? If big enough to sit up and join in they can make a horrible mess in an empty bath with 'paint' made with food colouring and Greek yoghurt with a couple of paintbrushes. Strip them down to nappies and have them sit on an old towel so they don't slip over and let them go nuts. You can rinse out the bath and wash them off afterwards without them spreading mess everywhere through the house first.

For the future, invest in a little folding slide that you can bring out on days like these, preferably with a ball pit (if you have an inflatable or framed paddling pool that would probably work) for them to slide into.

Have a living room disco! Draw the curtains, drape flashing fairy lights around and pump up the music. You can hold the baby and have a good old dance too.

Have any old birthday balloons in a drawer somewhere? Blow one up and make a makeshift racket with a paper plate and a wooden spoon and show your toddler how to play balloon tennis.

Make a den, but somewhere different. If you always use the drying rack when your toddler wants a house, maybe make a different one by spreading blankets over the kitchen table instead.

Do some baking together.

Again for the future, but if you're ever going to throw away an old mattress consider keeping it (under the bed perhaps, or in your garage if it's dry and rodent free!) and bring that out for an indoor bounce station in desperate times. Surround it with pillows/duvets etc so they don't hurt themselves if they fall off. When they're a couple of years older, if you have several single mattresses you don't mind getting a bit ruined, you can line them up the stairs with another mattress/lots of sofa cushions and other coverings at the bottom and let them play mountaineers climbing up and falling down - they can literally spend half a day doing that while you put your feet up.

If you have any wrapping paper tubes you can make a giant 'marble run' with a golf ball or similar. Even better is guttering pipes and a larger ball or small cars. Honestly set that up down the stairs or at a slant somehow and they'll play for ever so long.

Have an extra long daytime bath. Add random household stuff they wouldn't usually use and let them just explore it for hours. As they get older a blackout blind for the bathroom window, a UV lamp and some fluorescent facepaint goes down well!

Let your toddler make a collage with all the random bits of different materials you can think of/find. Old scrappy bits of wrapping paper, kitchen foil, snippets off odd or worn out socks you were going to throw away, popcorn (you can pop your own quickly in the microwave, but don't let your munchkin eat it, it's a real choking risk), string, an old lolly stick, any sort of old gubbins that would stick to card with glue.

Move the furniture round in the living room. This is infinitely exciting for toddlers and the baby will enjoy it too if at the crawling stage. You can take the opportunity to vacuum under sofas and things, and maybe make a simple obstacle course too.

How about a really simple treasure hunt? Maybe 5 or 6 large shapes (very large for a toddler, using most of a piece of A4 card) that you 'hide' in plain sight in other rooms, and then go round the house together to help find them.

For future reference again, don't have access to all of the toys all of the time. Limit them to about a third of their whole collection, and rotate them to keep thing fresh and interesting. They're more likely to play longer if you're stuck indoors in abysmal weather if they haven't seen those toys for a while.

Have baby in a sling and let the toddler 'help' with chores! They can join you sorting dirty washing into whites and colours, and when it's been washed peg it out on a line you've strung at their height across the kitchen (light stuff like socks and knickers anyway!) if you give them some pegs. Let them have a duster of their own while you polish (some mums give a spray bottle of water too, but I'm not quite brave enough for that!) 'Helping' wield the vacuum makes it take 45 minutes longer but at least they're not stuck in front of the TV!

Have another mum over with her tot.

But yeah, get out of doors when it's not really hammering down. You'd go mad else!

Freyasmum1 · 10/06/2019 13:21

I intend to make good use of our raincoats and buggy raincover

Pinkvoid · 10/06/2019 13:56

I always try to take my DC for a walk regardless of the weather. I remember one day taking them to the park on a rainy day so they had the playground to themselves and absolutely loved it! Obviously needed a bath as soon as they got home Wink.

Failing that, lots of reading and indoor play I guess.

BigRedLondonBus · 10/06/2019 13:58

Why can’t you go out without a car? Unless you live in the middle of nowhere. I don’t have a car we get everywhere by public transport.

MinisterforCheekyFuckery · 10/06/2019 14:20

Baking
Reading stories
Crafts
Puppet show (make some sock puppets?)
Imaginative play
Dressing up
Colouring
Watch films
Go swimming
Go to the library
Go to the cinema
Kids Yoga or Zumba on YouTube
Put some music on and dance
Make your own pizzas
Play doh
A bubble bath with lots of toys is always good for killing an hour or so!

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