Stay at Home Day
My dear sweet four year old wants a “Stay At Home Day“, everyday. When asked what she would like to do, that is the response I receive. Not even the playground, swimming, or the museum will sway her will to stay home.
Rather than fight her to go the the playground, I have started to respect her desire to stay home. In return she has been such a pleasure to be around. Her amazing ability to play independently for HOURS has shocked me. She will literally set up her Playmobile, My Little Ponies, and animals up and make up stories, playing the entire day. Yesterday we had to eat outside as not to disturb the storyline going on our kitchen table. I am trying not to clean it up (rather insist that she clean it up) until she shows signs that she has completed her play.
She seems to tire easily lately. By bedtime she is exhausted, on the verge of melting down. Bedtime is 7:30 pm, so I am not sure we can move it any earlier. She will not nap, she is so beyond that, yet I have had to shake her awake at aorund 4 pm from her bed when she has curled up to look at books and accidently fallen asleep! My assumption is that she is growing and all the imaginary play is wearing her out?!?!
The little guy is content to play with his trucks, try to disturb his big sister and chase the cat. His ability to mimic words is exploiding and he is starting to communicate with us more and more. He does not mind these stay at home days.
At first I was annoyed. I wanted to get out there and explore, go on adventures and experience the world with my children. Now I am starting to apprecaite this downtime. I am catching up on the computer, knitting, sewing and thinking a lot. My urge to get outside while the weather is still nice is still very strong, but my four year old doesn’t really understand what is to come. How long winter in Canada can feel. How cabin fever sets in, making one stir crazy. Maybe she will not experience this. She has always been more content than other children to chill out indoors. The little guy needs more ouside time, but is still little enough that I can wear him out in the apartment.
Thanks for all your thoughts on buying a house. I am not really sure what our next step will be. I just want it to be a fun and exciting experience for J & I.
Is your family explorers or the stay at home type? How do you balance it?
Some times kids have cycles of activity levels but this seems like a completely different situation. The tiredness that you report despite the contrary evidence that she should be that physically tired does not seem right. While growth-spurts can have a similar effect my old mother of four voice says a physical might be in order at least for your peace of mind.
I would prefer to stay at home more but the boys adore going out. They pester me constantly when we try and stay at home.
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My family goes outside, a lot, but just in our yard! My daughter (five year old) loves to ride her Barbie Jeep and her bike, but she will take breaks to see what’s on the TV, rest for a while and go back outside. But my house is on a dead end street with a cul-de-sac across the road so all the little ones play over there together. My 12 year old, when she was little, wanted to be in the house, ALL THE TIME. I would have to make her go outside once in a while, and she is still the same way. If yours is happy being in doors and playing, being creative, looking at books, I think it’s GREAT she can entertain herself.
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Oh man, we have days like that too here.
Sometimes Fa just doesn’t want to leave the house…and really, some days I can’t blame her. Good for you for following her lead. It can be very hard when our agenda’s differ. And watching her creative play mesmerizes me…I also notice that her imagination is fueled by the things she is going through at that particular moment. For example, she is forcing all of her dolls/pet shop pets to perform in stage even though they are afraid….Just like she was during her recital…
Enjoy the down time. She needs it. So do you.
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Be thankful that she wants to stay home and “play.” My son is always asking, “What are we going to do today?” It is nice that she will play with her toys for hours, making up stories, instead of wanting to stay home and watch television all day, or play video games.
As you know, I am a stay at home and James is an on the go. So, we are generally on the go.
Sometimes it’s me who wants to stay at home. Since moving here my DH has been the one who wants to go go go. The kids are either or - somedays they want to stay home and hang out, somedays they want to go somewhere.
I enjoy both days - sometimes a day of hanging out is needed after a lot of running around! LOL
I say enjoy it while it lasts! Play like she is doing is so fun for them and I personally love it when I hear of kids being able to play on their own. Can you imagine how tough it could be if she needed you to entertain her? Kids like that tire me out.
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We go out at least 5 days a week. I find those days much easier than the ones we stay home, and so does Primo. Bella could really care less.
He doesn’t entertain himself that well right now, but does okay. He especially loves to play with the dogs, but they’re not such huge fans of him jumping on them. I can’t imagine why.
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Isn’t is great what they can come up with from one plastic thing?!!?
Most days I give Geordie the choice, to go or stay. Most of the time he’s ready to get out into that big social world where there are so many people. Once in awhile he just putters around the house doing things. Friday for example, we had a ‘lazy’ morning and finally at noon I said that when he gets dressed we’ll go to the skate park. He dressed at 4:00. Between noon and 4:00 he played…on his own, in his own world! It was GREAT!
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My first-born conditioned me to want to go places most of the time. So we usually only have one day at home before we go stir-crazy.
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My two are fairly easy going - loving both the outdoors and at home. At the moment I would love to stay at home EVERY day, but feel too guilty if the weathers ok! It’s been raining HEAPS so at home days are all good!
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Each of my three kids has different desires for novelty and change, which makes planning a day around all of them REALLY difficult. But this was such a lovely soothing post - you’re a really good mom for responding to what your children want and need.
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Hey despite staying home I’m glad that all of you had a great time too
You know Chelle, Singapore is a packed city and I’m telling you it is so crowded everywhere ;( Monday to Friday my two girls get up early so when it is Sat & Sun they preferred to stay home, laze around or invite some friends over for a swim so that’s nice too.
We’ve always been a family on the go, taking Snuggle Bug with us nearly everywhere. For the most part, he goes with the flow and does whatever.
Lately though he’s expressed a strong desire to stay at home more often than not. He no longer likes to eat out. He requests that we eat in. He’s content to play indoors to escape the heat.
I think it’s great that your kids are content to be at home sometimes. There’s nothing wrong with that!
We are the stay at home types. We do venture out though, but given the choice I’ll stay at home.
Your kids are getting big and how sweet that they are content to play and use their imaginations so well. Maybe she will be a writer one day. I remember doing the same as a kid.
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All that thinking is hard work…no wonder Becca is so tired, concentrating all day. Remember back to university…maybe you were like me, studying for hours on end made me ravonously hungry, not to mention sleepy
Don’t panic yet! The autumn lasts well into late November in Halifax. You definately arrived during the longest part of winter last year.
Good call; I think kids get overloaded easily, and it’s good that you’re taking your cues from your kids. Eventually, one or both of them will start wanting to go places outside the home again
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Gabi usually wants to be wherever we aren’t! If we are out, she wants to go home. If we are home, she wants to go out.
It could be that she is just growing. Her sleepiness should just be a temporary thing. If by chance it doesn’t, then I would probably take her to her pediatrician to make sure something else isn’t going on. It’s probably just the growing though like you said. Plus, I get sleepy when I am reading too (especially in the late afternoon).
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I’d guess you could say we were half and half LOL We do like being out and about doing things, but I also crave the down time just staying inside not having to run around doing anything! That’s great that Becca can play so well by herself and has such a great imagination!
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With 2 active boys at home — I must say that I am so jealous that your child chooses to stay indoors and still be content with that choice even after a few hours. My boys bug me daily about wanting to be out and about. The first thing I hear from them in the morning is “where are we going today?” and it is quite difficult to keep them all happy indoors all day. Once and awhile they want to stay in. But give it 2 hours, and they are finding any way to get me agree in going out.
nate is a double-edged sword. he loves to be out and going and doing. and he is a total extrovert–he draws his energy from being around people. so when we do go out, he gets totally spun up. if we stay at home he tends to be quieter, plays great by himself, and is easier to deal with, but he sucks all the energy that jeff and i possess. as much as i love my spouse and rely on him totally, even just the addition of jeff into the house is enough to make nate completely unhinged and hard to deal with. when it is just nate and i (and now willow) he’s fine.
as for willow, well, she’s too little yet to know or care. but she sleeps way better at home than she does when we’re out. so we’ll see.
It’s good to chill out at home sometimes. Becca has grown up so much in the photo above and I guess she’s showing her maturity by making her own choice to stay at home. Good that the little guys is equally content at home.
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