To find it expensive keeping preschoolers fed & entertained?

[pirateblue]

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

Yes soft play and activities can rack up. Just choose not to go. Park, playgrounds, libraries are free.

But YABVU for complaining about having to feed your child.

They do eat a bit more than that!

Today was

Boiled egg and toast for breakfast
banana for snack
jacket potato with cheese and cucumber and tomatoes for lunch
apple for snack
cod, mashed potato and peas for dinner
yoghurt and blueberries

So I probably could reduce that but they certainly aren’t just having a bit of ham, cheese and fruit. Besides, my eldest doesn’t eat sandwiches for some reason, just takes the filling out.

You’re kidding me @Greatbigtub ?? It’s the worst part of parenting 😂

One of our free activities is visiting Pets at Home. Just go and look at the animals. Go and look at all the interesting things they put in fish tanks, look at the live bugs for reptiles. We quite often pop into charity shops too just for a mooch. Kids play with the toys for a bit, sometimes buy a 50p toy or book and then enjoy it at home. I also sometimes make a picture shopping list for them when I go to Tesco now.

We also have a farm nearby and walk to look at the animals. And we're fortunate to still have decent access to Children's Centre sessions. They're free and they have specific ones for preschoolers rather than toddlers.

Again, I’m not wanting to sound like an argumentative arse but that’s not free as you have to drive there.

And I have to admit it doesn’t sound fun, it would take what, all of twenty minutes? I can’t see that capturing the attention of mine for very long to be honest. I probably have awkward children.

I appreciate you may not live near parks and forests so do more in your own home.

Learn to entertain them yourself. Doesn’t matter how old they are, they can help bake cakes. Mixing sugar and butter, sieving in flour, cracking eggs and mixing, then get them to help with the cleaning up.

They can also help with housework, dusting and hoovering. They will have fun and learn for life.

Do more craft activities, paint, make clay models, paper crafts.

Older mums will tell you, we didn’t have all these places to entertain our children when they were little.

It is tricky but mine often prefers the easy things to big set pieces.
Baking.
Trips to the park - particularly if there is a bandstand to run around.
Library - ours has craft sessions after school.
Museums.
Trips on public transport.
Watching trains at the train station.
Spending pocket money at the charity shop - our nearest has good books for 50p.
Trips to the supermarket and helping to carry the basket or push the trolley.
Pond dipping for bugs and fish.
Running. Outside. Anywhere.
Church play groups.
Also I have seen a few toddler groups that only charge a nominal fee for people on benefits or universal credit.
Trip to your local city farm if you have one nearby.
Playing with a football.
Croissant in a local cafe.

Older mums will tell you, we didn’t have all these places to entertain our children when they were little.

Theres a lot of judgement there and the way things ‘were’ isn’t always better.

The only thing I did to ‘entertain’ my children was to keep the tv on all day and let them have free play of all the dressing up, role play, garden, art stuff etc. We did go swimming and had an occasional trip to the library. I hated parks and forced activities so we didn’t do that very often. They learned to entertain themselves and to this day reminisce about their ‘idyllic’ childhood.

And I think we do manage to get on fairly well. They do a paid activity every morning and then on days I have them both we generally find something for the afternoon. Yes, sometimes that’s the library or the park if the weather permits but sometimes we do go to soft play, or a role play centre, or a farm or something like that. I don’t think it’s a bad thing and they seem happy enough, but looking at my bank account I think it’s a good thing I go back to work soon

Cheap as chips compared to teenagers and young adults! I miss the days where jumping in a puddle was hilarious and a bowl of strawberries was culinary perfection. Even an expensive day out was much cheaper because you generally only pay when they're 3/4 and even after that it's child prices. They were happy with a picnic or to share a main or a couple of sides if we bought food.

Now they want theme parks, season tickets for football, or to 'borrow' £500 for a ticket home from Thailand. They eat three courses including steak when we eat out, drink elaborate coffees or cocktails in the case of the older two.

Mine are older teenagers now, so it's been a while! But, I do clearly remember those long days of needing to fill time.
Soft play was a waste of money for mine - they just didn't seem to enjoy it, and spent the time whinging to go home 🙄.

From memory, the free/cheap stuff that seemed to be a hit with mine..

"Washing up" - a basin of warm soapy water, and a selection of plastic cups, plates etc. Give them a sponge and a teatowel.

A tip I got from MN about 15 years ago was to let them 'paint' the garden fence. Get a paintbrush, and a tin of water, and let them get busy. A wooden fence will "change colour" when it's wet.

About once a week, we used to go on a bus run. The local bus would stop by us at around 10.30am. We'd pack our lunch and drinks, get on the bus and just ask the driver for a round robin ticket (I think it was £3). We'd tour around the local villages, looking out the window spotting things. The bus would drop us back home about 1pm, just in time for nap time/quiet time.

Possibly the best money I ever spent was £50 annual pass to a local garden centre, and we renewed this for a few years because we got such good value from it.
Aside from being a garden centre, it had a dinosaur display, a little museum of space travel. There was a miniature train to ride on, a small soft play area, a swing park, and a cafe. Everything included in the price (except the cafe obviously).
I know it's quite a bit of outlay, but we went at least a couple of times a week. The DCs would wake up in the morning and immediately ask if they could go and see the dinosaurs - the stegosaurus had a button to press which made its head turn and make a roaring sound. They never seemed to tire of this!

I'll think of some more.
It's a really hard stage, Op, I remember it well.

I genuinely didn’t find this phase expensive. Agreed with all the pp about cheap or free activities. How much screen time do they have? The more they have, the less they can concentrate — that was the case for mine at least.

What's the bus service like in your area?
Most buses (in England - not sure about the rest) are currently capped at £2 a journey - so there and back to somewhere would be £4 (kids are free).

Totally agree. My 9 year old isn't as keen on the free/cheap activities anymore! Much, much easier and cheaper to entertain as toddlers. You don't need to do a paid activity everyday It's the childcare/working part time/not at all that costs the most for preschoolers

I think that’s a snarky and unnecessary response op. Children are still the same. It’s good for them to be bored occasionally. It promotes creativity, independence and resilience.

And everyone’s fixating on activities which do cost a lot but it extends beyond that. For example DS has a bit of eczema so he has the Child’s Farm bubble bath and shampoo and sun cream as anything else causes a flare up and that’s not cheap. DD has formula milk which isn’t cheap either - obviously that’s not forever but while she’s on it it’s costly.

Petrol, swimming lessons, nursery fees, healthy food, entertainment, clothes … I may have some money left one day

I thought the post you quoted was snarky and unnecessary, actually. But - forgive me - you and I do clearly have different views on raising children.

I think it must be where you live. I have a dd the same age, on the says she’s not at nursery we go to free toddler groups at the community centre (she made friends with other kids there so she doesn’t get bored), go to the garden centre and look at the fish and plants, go to play parks (loads round here so we do different ones), go to the library (they have children’s sections with colouring and kids books to look at), meet friends with kids her age for play dates, go to local country parks for walks and play park. All free, and we can either walk to them or a short 5 min drive which doesn’t really cost much). Then we do some paid activities sometimes like a cafe for lunch with a play area or soft play.

This!

Cardboard box, homemade playdough. Pots and pans with wooden spoons and a bag of pasta. Brio, sand pit, Duplo, paint brush&water on fence, park- jobs a goodun.

But it's true isn't it - we had the park, the garden, helping with the dusting , a trip to the library and the shops. What is 'better' about spending ££££ entertaining toddlers?

Things like soft play are a fairly recent introduction with the aim of parting parents from their cash. When you really think about soft play and similar, they're fairly miserable places yet for some reason parents now think they're a necessary part of childhood.

play dates are free.. activities, clothes and food can differ greatly depending on what you choose.

i spend more than necessary for sure. Not that much on clothes or toys but if they like to eat expensive fruits like strawberries, rasberries etc i‘ll buy it for them even though i wouldn’t buy it for myself (regularly).
Same goes for activities, your kids can have just as much fun at a playground if you interact with them but i think as an adult you‘d rather go to the zoo/swimming center/dinosaur parc/.. every now and then..

Um...no, not really. Once they are teens then it is expensive!

It’s only expensive if you make it expensive. Go to libraries for storytime, play dates and the park. Some museums are free. I tend to pay for various things but I wouldn’t really need to. What’s costing you the most money? Are there other options?

You can buy cheap food and bring packed lunches. What are you feeding your kid? I know cheaper food can be less healthy but there’s some cheaper stuff that isn’t.

I have one child who is brilliant in the house and one who drives me mad, so it does depend on the child. It also depends on the parent because I feel the need to get out the house every day and I get bored very quickly of certain pre-schooler activities which frankly is why I go out to work. Some parents really thrive in the toddler stage but I think I could only properly enjoy it as a SAHM if I had plenty of money!