To find it expensive keeping preschoolers fed & entertained?

[pirateblue]

I mean, it is, isn’t it? Or am I doing it wrong …?

Just out the older one in floatation vests. Or stick to paddling pool depth ones.

I had the older one in arm bands and the baby in a flotation ring thing with legs or held them! The baby pool is quite shallow.

Well it would be at least £15 for that swim in my bit of the SE! Varies a lot round the country & depends on the subsidy the leisure trust gets.

Oh this !
Yes it has got more expensive in the past few years but their expectations are low they don't really care what u do. National trust etc might work out good value if you live near one. Some trampoline parks near us do cheaper toddler morning. Swimming can be ok during the week.

My experience is 15 years old but a family lesuire pass which gave unlimited swimming and use of creche ( I think included baby gym and swimming classes too) cost £20 pcm. Off to google how much similar pass costs now...

Young children, I think, cost less.
Toy libraries, marketplace, Pinterest.
I still have my playdough with a basket of toys, utensils, lids.
Half our children's books found in second-hand book shops.
Clothes definitely better variety, cheaper.
All depends unless you like upmarket toys & clothes.
Summer water play l, sand.
Winter, activities online and indoor places to visit, like the library, swimming pool, play groups.
All up to choice of what it costs really.

£44 which is pretty good really, for us it was 2 full days out each week, plus a swim on wet weekend afternoon.

It would cost £6 to swim here with 2 under 5s.

I don’t think our young child is excessively expensive. We fill our time with play dates, this is really great entertainment, of course you usually need to be a sociable parent too! On a good day he gets 20 minutes of TV so he’s pretty deprived on that front too. Also goes to his free childcare in the week (30 hours free at his age), both parents work condensed 5 day in 4 weeks hence why no cost on childcare either. We made sure our child could ride a bike from quite young and intend to just get him into mountain biking & hiking which are both free activities minus the equipment so he has to join those activities already with us and has been since a baby. Don’t get me wrong children aren’t no cost but I literally would rather spend my money on equipment for hobbies that can actually be quite interesting and avoid the horrors of soft play. Put it this way we are not going to be Disney land type parents and I’m hoping exposure to the other fun side of life will minimise the likelihood of them being desperate for all these places of hell with long queues. Theme parks are no place for people that like fun unless you also like to spend 85% of your day standing in a line for a ride doing nothing productive with the day. Whilst it could all go the other way his lack of exposure for standing in a queue will hopefully set him up well for hating those places like us, forced fun and entertainment at attractions is the kind of life we try to avoid.

@Neurodiversitydoctor well that's... nice for you? You are aware prices vary?!

Where abouts in the South East are you ? These are freedom leisure prices they are all over Kent and Sussex...

London Borough bordering Kent. It'd be £17.36 here for the OP: kids are free but you'd have to pay for two adults as under 3s require 1:1.

Not really the point of the thread though 😂 sorry OP.

Oh dear.

If you think keeping pre-schoolers entertained is expensive then...good luck to you.

I could keep a whole crowd of preschoolers active and fully entertained for a week for less than I spend in an afternoon on an activity for two teens 😂

I think under 3s require 1:1 but some people don't. I mean that's fine if they fancy that challenge but it feels too risky to me!

I agree OP. The cost of the fruit he eats alone is astronomical. Everything is so so expensive now.

How much fruit can a small person eat in a day? DD4:has 1, maybe 2 pieces of fruit a day. Shed have a small banana, an apple, a satsuma or similar and we bei a punnet of berries once a week and she'll have maybe...8-10 berries with plain yoghurt or something.

a pack of 6 small apples, a small punnet of berries and a few bananas should be plenty for a week? That's what...£3?

.

Ah you're lucky you didn't get a hoover. (Also not sure where you live, but a single punnet of berries is nearly £3 here, and will be finished in a day and a half)

a pack of 6 small apples, a small punnet of berries and a few bananas should be plenty for a week? That's what...£3?

My toddler doesn't eat a huge amount of fruit but this is still way off. The price too. You're not getting what you've listed for £3 in your average supermarket.

It's a well-known cliché that toddlers absolutely tan fruit, especially berries. Mine will eat in a week: 7 bananas, 2 punnets of strawberries, a punnet of blueberries, dried raisins and apricots, and the occasional apple/orange/watermelon etc.

Unless yours is scoffing a lot of veg, then that's not much fruit and definitely not typical of most toddlers.

This so regional or even local isn't it ? Round here a punnet of local Strawberries is £1 and will be till the end of August. Then there will be buckets of free apples and blackberries in the bushes, followed by pears in October etc.

Granted Nov- May is tougher ( although I will stew and freeze apples/ blackberies/ Rhubarb for use in the winter months. I also buy frozen berries.

So a swim followed by a cheese sandwich and a punnet of strawberries ( -and a 2 finger kitkat each for me a 2 preschoolers would cost me £8ish. I think I used to budget a fiver a day in 2007/8/9/10. So about right. For some that would be more like £20-25 which seems a lot for a low key day out.

Oh, my daughter would eat an entire pint of strawberries or blueberries if I allowed her. However, she isn't allowed because they're too expensive and there's just no need. So when she gets strawberry she probably gets five or six

Yeah we spend alot of time at softplay and swimming. Park is crap in cold weather, even in waterproofs. The playgroups round here are crap, barley any toys, rough kids. DS asks to go home after about 45 minutes of braving it and honestly I feel the same.

He's a doer, not a wonderer, a walk round a shop is not entertainment, he needs to be moving his body, not just in a differnt place.

Yep, £3.

Aldi -
6 apples 99p
5 bananas 78p
Blueberries £1.29p (c.3 portions of around 8-10 berries)
Total : £3.06

That's plenty of fruit for 1 week for a 3 year old having 2 servings of fruit a day.

Just because you're choosing to let your child eat an entire punnet of £3.50 strawberries in one go, doesn't mean fruit has to be expensive for small kids.

It's a relatively modern thing, parents feeling they have to throw money at and take their children places to entertain them all the time.

My mother - who had each of us (I am the middle one of 3) at home until the term before our 5th birthdays, as there was no pre-school provision in the 60s and 70s when we were children - certainly didn't take us anywhere as there was nowhere to go and she didn't drive. I was encouraged from a very early age to be quite self-motivated and I loved my dolls, paintbox, colouring books and was taught to read before I went to school. During the school holidays (so my elder brother was around), we engaged in a lot of garden-based play.

It depends what you do with them. Plenty of baby/toddler groups are £3 or under around my way (south east). Obviously there are some more expensive private classes, but look at the children's centre, church halls and library if you want something cheaper. Many include a little snack (fruit, veg, cheese, crackers, toast, breadsticks etc) in the price too.