YMBlogs ~ young mommies' voices!

Well it’s a whirlwind at our house (as usual) and I know I haven’t checked in for a while (we’ve been sick) but I wanted to chat a little about March Break and what kind of activities you mommies did with your kids. What kind of child care do you rely on when they are not in school and what kind of activities do you sign them up for? For those of you with younger tots, this is something you’re about to get tossed into, so listen to what the older mommies suggest! lol 😉

I had been *really* stressed out about this coming week for basically all of 2011 to date!!! But it has gone really well so far. We had planned to send DS to the same camp as last year and now that he is older he could go to the full day option instead of just the half day for preschoolers. I called only last week to register (I know, a bit late) but luckily they had space. Luckily I had done my research and knew there was a discount for putting a camper in for the full week because the administrator distractedly tried to just charge me the daily rate x5! No thanks! My son *loves* the camp to bits. I tried to pick him up early on the first day and he would have none of that: “But it’s not pick up TIME, Mom!” and he sent me away.

As for my (much-older) DD, she wanted nothing to do with any camp. My DH joked that any idea coming from us, even if we could find a “sit around and go on Facebook and text your friends from your cell phone all day” camp somewhere, she would refuse to go just on the principle that it had been suggested by her parents. We are that hated and horrible these days. I offered her many many options including a babysitting course (you’d think the chance of making cash of her own this summer would be enticing! but no…), singing lessons, Hip Hop camp, dance camp, gmynastics camp (with or without her little bro), you name it – we researched it. But no, she insisted she wouldn’t have enough time to spend with friends or go shopping even if she were enrolled in a half-day program. And without her grand-parents to back me up (who had her more than half the week), I knew it was a fight I couldn’t win. If they were the ones having to drag her out of bed, you can be sure they would be saying “Don’t blame me, blame your big bad mommy who is making us all go through this camp thing” (have I mentioned this are my ex’s parents? her bio-dad’s folks? oh yes, it’s fun…).

But I did have a (small) victory this week… I suggested one morning that we go for a manicure at a local spa. “Invite a friend” I said, “My treat!”. She insisted everyone was busy, she wouldn’t be able to find anyone, blah blah blah. I asked her to put out a note online and on her texts and sure enough, there was a friend who was able to come along. So as usual, she ended up having a great time getting her nails done with her friend (and getting a Frappucino and having a leisurely chat session at the coffee shop) and it killed many hours during which she was not just moping around in her pyjamas bored.

Once the spring break is over for us, DD will go back to her dance lessons and we intend to put DS into gymnastics at the same place he’s done these camps a couple years in a row! They’re also both signed up for soccer this summer. We’ve had different sets of grand-parents help out with the “funding” of these activities because they can definitely get pricey, but I would definitely say it’s worth it. I started when the kids are young with little swim lessons and things like that (as babies, you go in the pool with them and then starting from around age 3, they go on their own) and it’s great to have one or two activities to keep them active during the week, especially when at least one of those extra-curricular activities is a sport or other physical activity.

So I suspect if the Question of the Month for March Roll Call on the YM Boards is about Spring Break, I can now just link over here! lol 😉 but either way, I’d love to also see some comments over here too from YM mommies and others… what do you usually do for March Break? What activities have you found to be good ideas for your kids during the year? What about summer? How do you keep them from being bored during the holidays?