does anyone else find parenting in cold weather harder?

[queenrollo]

ds is 3.5 and loves being outdoors. I simply cannot cope with cold weather, never have been able to. I've bought thermals etc so i can get out in the fresh air with him but my hands/feet/ears soon become very painful with the cold.
I just feel like i am a rubbish parent as soon as the cold weather arrives. I try and make sure we do physical activity for at least half the day (usually the morning) in the hope that the rest of the day i can spend indoors doing other stuff. Ds doesn't have much interest in colouring/painting/making......he will help with baking but 20mins is limit of attention for that. I spend my days silently counting in my head to calm myself......ds just has so much energy, he is starting to become destructive (not massively so, but as i am renting i am more concious of this), argumentative and frustrated.
I just needed to write this down, having a particularly tough morning with him.....

Don't give yourself a hard time. Ds1 is 4 and loves being outside too but it's evil at this time of year, especially when you are mainly standing around (Ds2 is 11 months so is not running about yet!).

When we do venture to the park it's empty so I guess everyone else is indoors too!

Nah. Parenting is always effing hard work

Not cold weather but the darker mornings get me. I hate getting up in the dark and my little morning people don't seem to get this...

I don't know which is worse - the cold or the dark....

Definitely harder.

There's more stuff to remember (or forget in my case). It's harder to get motivated to get out of the door. The days are shorter so you've got to get out quicker in the mornings if you want a day out.

You can't just hang out in the garden for too long in this weather either.

I've got to get out of the house with my DCs. They'll just trash the place otherwise and get frustrated with being indoors.

The days are supposed to be getting longer though, bit by bit.

yeah it's hard. i've yet to find any gloves/mitts that actually stay on my 18month old, and once his hands get really cold it's game over. Yet he doesn't like being cooped up in the house for long, so you have to be more imaginative and seek out new places to go and play...cold weather easier than wet weather tho.

ps queenrollo, intrigued by your name since my DS is called Rollo..yours isn't is he?

Oh yes....all the stuff. I've given up on early stuff. BY the time they have coats, shoes etc on we're already an hour late or so usually

It's my dd who hates the cold! It's a nightmare, I love going out for walks, wrapped up, but my dd will constantly whinge about the cold, her legs hurt, the wind is blowing her hair into her mouth etc etc etc from the moment we leave the house til we get back in. So we end up trapped in the house with her climbing all over us or watching too much tv. Roll on spring!

I did today when we drove dd to a country park an hour away, then got there and realised we'd forgotten her coat .

Soft play? I can't tolerate cold atm so we spend a lot of time at various soft plays. Or other people take the little one (very active) to the park for me. Try asking, people are very flexible.

Oh I hate it too! I have also got a child who needs a lot of exercise to wear her out but its so hard in this weather. I think it has been harer the last couple of weeks because the usual groups and things that we do haven't been on and other mums and children have been away so we haven't had our trips to thier houses/them coming to us either. Roll on spring!

It is harder IMO. We've had slight cabin fever for last few days as weather has been so cold. DD is 3 and would be OK but just too cold for 13 mo DS who's not moving. At least DH has been home on hols and tomorrow pre-school restarts (deep sigh of relief!).