In need of some bonding and fun activities for me and DS to do before nursery

[mamadiva]

Long story short I have never really properly bonded with DS who is now 3.4YO, I am kind of starting to realise this now and want to make more of an effort with him.

It's not like I don't pay him attention or anything like that but he goes to nursery Mon-Fri for the funded sessions 12.45-3.15pm and I feel as if that's the only thing we ever get out.

I need to get it sorted to make me stop feeling like a shit mum and in the hope that it might calm him down a bit as he is an exhausting child

So what do you do with your kids? Not got a lot of money and don't drive but can get buses around the place.

Walk in park collecting stuff (we did leaves the other day)

picnic/coffee shop

library (often have story time/singing)

swim

cook stuff

draw

DVD and popcorn/crisps for a treat

bath/shower (when I'm getting desperate for ideas)

water in garden

bubbles

read books

go to supermarket to buy something

washing/cleaning

football in park

theres' some ideas!

That is a really annoying time, Ds did afternoons and I found it really stressful going out and getting back in time to have lunch and get to pre-school

Have you tried actually just playing with him for a set time each day on whatever he likes to play (even of you don't enjoy it). You could set a timer so that it has an end point? The game needs to be one that helps you connect though.

I do sympathise as I struggled to bond with ds and found playing with ds REALLY hard. A book called Playful Parenting was fantastic though and gave me loads of ideas.

Going out is good and you will get loads of ideas for that but tbh, I often went our with ds because I couldn't stand his demands for playing. What I found was if I did play with him wholeheartedly for some time (any time between 20min and 1hr) he was miles happer and we just felt closer.