We want to be happy and our life to be easy. I’m going to give you some tips that will make your life easier and your kids happier while you stay at home with the kids at this time.
Then you can figure out for yourself how to use the extra energy you will have after a peaceful day to do something that makes you happy.
You don’t have to do all of this at once, of course, that would be overwhelming. Remember we want our life to be easy.
Your time
Plan your day
Planning your day could be simple.
Make overnight oats for breakfast tomorrow so you wake up with a delicious breakfast ready, make sure you have enough food for a day, and then promise yourself that you will all play with legos at some point in the afternoon.
This simple thing could snowball and help you have a great day.
If I don’t plan my day, we all end up having a crappy day. We have been staying at home with the kids for a while now, and this has happened too many times.
Have a morning family ritual
I love family rituals. They remind us that we are a team.
If we do some kind of ritual in the morning it makes us feel as if there is some kind of structure in our days even when there isn’t.
Exercise and love produce oxytocin, the hormone that makes us happy. There are so many ways to use oxytocin to start your day right!
Meditation
Meditation has all sorts of benefits for your mind and body.
If you have a toddler, you can sit on the floor with your legs crossed, close your eyes and breathe in silence for a minute. It is very simple, but it will teach them to pause for a minute, which is a great skill to have as a toddler.
Next time your toddler is about to have a meltdown you can remind them to pause and breathe. Sometimes avoiding a meltdown is as easy as that.
You can also lay down on your back, put a small rock on your belly and tell them to breathe while they focus on the rock’s movement.
Positivity
Have everyone in the family have a turn saying something you are thankful for and something nice to all the other members of the family. Building each other up is always a good idea but especially at this time.
Yoga and stretching
As with meditation, yoga and stretching have all sorts of benefits for your mind and body.
Dancing
Have a dance party. Listening to music, singing, exercising… it is the recipe for a perfect morning ritual, isn’t it? Everyone feels happy after a little family dance party.
Let your children know what to expect
They have very little control over what is going to happen but they need to at least know what is going to happen. I would be very upset if I got an email from my supervisor telling me that we have a meeting right now on Skype. Wouldn’t you?
Depending on the age of your children, you can remind them one or more times when it is going to be time to eat, play, sleep, etc. I guarantee you will avoid some meltdowns just by doing this.
Do a fun activity each day
Staying at home with your kids every single day can get very repetitive. Think of an activity for each day. They can be very simple. It will make your day be a little more structured and of course, you will have fun and have a better mood the rest of the day.
Staying at home activities
Here are some ideas of easy activities to do at home with little kids.
- Finger paint.
- Paint with markers.
- Bake cookies.
- Build a castle.
- Whisk bubbles. Just put water and soap in a bin and give your toddler a whisk. They can also give their toy animals a bath. You can put food coloring.
- Build castles with Kinetic Sand.
- Sensory play with a rice bin.
- Scavenger hunt.
- Obstacle race.
Outside activities
Here are some examples of outdoor activities to do with little kids.
- Sled.
- Ride bikes.
- Make colored snow figures with food coloring.
- Go to the beach or somewhere they can play with dirt. Sand, snow and water are perfect for sensory play.
- Go outside and take pictures with a little kid friendly camera.
- Collect nature objects to use in crafts later.
Establish parents time
Set a time in the day where you sit on the couch with your partner or with whoever you live and want to spend time with, have a cup of your favorite hot drink and talk.
Children also need to learn to not be the center of all attention and to not interrupt conversations.
They can be around you and cuddle or play or listen, and of course, they should be able to say something, but not be interrupting you every 5 seconds. You can say:
X and I are going to prepare two cups of cocoa and talk for Y minutes, let’s find something fun for you to do in the meantime. Do you want a drink too?
And then thank them.
This is easier if they have had a peaceful happy day, don’t use this as your time out after a stressful day because it probably won’t work and will cause a conflict that you don’t want.
Everyone’s more willing to collaborate if they feel loved and their needs are met.
Establish siblings time
If you have more than one kid and they are old enough to interact without supervision, find something that they both enjoy and they can do together. And don’t interrupt them!
Research shows that people have better relationships when they share activities they both like.
If they have that positive time every day they will build a relationship that doesn’t involve you. Eventually, they won’t need you to solve their conflicts for them.
This will charge their relationship with positive energy and will make them less likely to fight. At the same time, you’ll have a moment to yourself consistently. Everyone wins.
Involve your children in chores
This is the best time to teach them to work as a team.
Small children love to play pretend cooking and cleaning. Not so small children can learn to be responsible. Give them some resposability.
If they help you make the food, they’ll have a good time, they’ll feel some sense of accomplishment and they’ll be happier to eat the food. And you won’t have to find something to distract them while you make dinner.
This is also a great investment for the future: they might not be helpful right now, but they are learning and someday they’ll be the ones to make you breakfast. You can play music or sing songs while you do chores.
They’re not as skilled as you are, but don’t be fixing their messes in front of them and don’t throw away what they make. Appreciate their effort and you’ll see how with time they will actually be helpful.
Your space
If you are going to stay at home with the kids, you want your home to be a cozy peaceful space for you and for them.
Create a quiet space
We all need time alone and quiet.
Create a comfy space where everyone can go and find peace before they start feeling overwhelmed. You don’t need a room, you can set up a teepee or throw a pillow and a blanket in some quiet corner in the house.
If you find a way to create a quiet space for parents with small children where they can go at any time and not be interrupted, let me know.
Create a roughhousing space
Yesterday I caught my two year old running in circles happy as ever singing made-up songs.
He was very happy and he really needed to move. Now we have set a space with a climbing wall, a mattress on the floor, a swing, and nothing else. He can run and jump all he wants in there and I won’t worry one bit. We can all go there and go wild together too.
Keep the chaos under control
Staying at home with the kids more hours of the day is going to create some chaos for sure if you don’t take care of it. There are two ways to solve this: you can clean more or reduce the mess your family creates. We don’t want to clean more.
The fewer things you have, the fewer things that could be dirty or on the floor.
And you might be thinking that this is not the time to spring clean and declutter. I agree, but you can lazy declutter.
Have a box somewhere in the house for things to go. Every time you find something that doesn’t have a use or place or that is annoying to you, put it in the box. You can decide later what to do with the items in the box.
After a while you will have less things to clean up and a cleaner space. And everything will have its designated place and use.
Your feelings
We have been staying at home with our kids for 7 weeks because of the corona pandemic, only leaving the house to play outside and buy groceries.
My children are very little. V is one month old but A is two years old and he senses things are different. We have told him that we are in the middle of a pandemic in very simple terms and he knows that’s why we can’t go to any of the places we used to go, but there is still a cloud of unknowns and fear over all of us, small people included.
So if you notice they’re sad or upset for some reason, talk about their feelings with them and let them know it’s normal to feel so and so and help them find a way to feel better.
Lastly, if you catch yourself thinking something positive about someone, say it!
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