How do I keep from being bored?

Question

I hate to admit it, but being a stay at home mom is so boring. We do not have a second car, so I can't even go to the grocery. We live on an island on the west coast of Fl and there is no where to even walk. There is only so much you can clean. I know that even my 19 month old son is starting to get bored of it. What can I do to bring fun and fullfilllment back into our lifes?

Did I mention that I live in fl on an island. That means that there is no one hear. In the summer everyone goes back up north. I have no neighbors. It's like a gost town here. Just tought I'd add that. No park to walk to either.

Answer 1

1. Read books, out loud. You'd be surprised at the books a little one can tolerate. My kids know more Shakespeare, Homer and other classisists than most PhD kids. And don't forget the non-fiction. Kids are fascinated by learning how the world works. Get books about science, technology and history too. If you're on a budget you can get one book a month, for the $10/month membership at zooba.com. It'll do your son good, I guarantee it!

2. Garden. Your son will also love this, and it will contribute to your household by saving money. You live in a place where you can grow alot of neat things. You can also use them to make crafts and make canned veggies, pickles, soups and sauces and can them, and give them away as gifts if you have too much! Get books about gardening, herb lore, etc. and spend your sunny days growing herbs, vegetables and fragrant flowers, and the off-season you can spend making herbal baths, soaps, etc. to give to your friends and family as gifts. Wisterialane.com will give you a good start on the crafts and you can get really unusual and cool herbs at crimsonmoon.com and the old standbye Burpee can provide you with your veggies. While you're doing this, talk to your son about it. He can learn right along with you. This sort of knowledge will do him good service in the future.

3. Explore Nature. If you're not into gardening (and even if you are) get some field guides for your area, and load your son up in the stroller and take a walk around the island. Identify the wildflowers (weeds), birds, etc. that you find. Go down to the beach and identify the tidepool critters. He'll love it. And I'll tell you something, if I was on your island, surrounded by nobody, just overgrown lawns and sea birds, I would be running around going "Oh my goodness, I don't know what it is! I know it's in the roseacea family! Quick, let's go home and look it up!" You get that mindset, you'll never think your island is empty again.

4. Take up sewing. My boyfriend's mom is a housewife and she makes clothes for everyone. She makes obnoxious shorts for him that she sends him all the time and he loves it! You can't get clothes like that in the store. She also makes clothes for his puppets. My own mother (not a housewife, but she sews anyway) makes clothes for the dogs! She also makes our halloween and Renfest costumes. Costume making is great if you have little ones, because then you can use them to dress up and play pretend. We go to all sorts of places in costume because it amuses us (myself and my kids, my boyfriend dresses crazy every day- weird shorts...). If you're not into clothes, you can maybe get into dollmaking, or puppets (then get a book or two of kiddie plays and you and your son can make little puppet skits) or neat household things, like curtains, slipcovers, or whatever suits your taste. If sewing's not your thing, try embroidery, crochet or knitting. My grandmother was a housewife, and she did the knitting thing like crazy (as well as the gardening thing.)

5. Make websites. This is my current obsession. It's not so hard. If you go to homestead.com you can make as many websites as you want for about $300-ish a year and they have really easy-to-use software. Nvu, (New Vu, search for it) is an open source (free) website editor that requires slightly more skill (you have to know how to upload the files) that is free, you just have to find webspace, and there's plenty of space out there that's free or really low cost. Anything you're interested in you can make a site about, you can make a fan site for your favorite actor, musician, or TV show, or about your favorite hobby, or a book review site, and link to Amazon.com and see if you can't make a little money off it (I've been doing this for 5 years and I think I've made a total of $50 or so, but it's my fun hobby, not my job) or you can do a family site, a growth blog for your son, or a site for your extended family, family tree, whatever. If you do the nature suggestion above, you can get a digital camera and put together a plant and wildlife identification site. How fun!

6. If you're into it, got Achaea.com, or get a game like World of Warcraft or Everquest. These things are so addictive (assuming they catch your interest in the first place) you will not only not realize you're bored, you won't realize that you did absolutely nothing all day that you were supposed to do either.

Answer 2

WOW, Well, for me reading a book usually helped, but don't know if you even have access to a library. There is a lot to read on the net, even literature.
But I guess you are thinking of the young one also.
I had a really fun book I borrowed from my sister-in-law when my son was little: How to Give Your Child A Superior Mind. Whether I did or not I don't know, but he turned out pretty well. Anyway, I really loved doing little things with him, that helped him learn and think about the world around him.
Like teaching colors: they said try to use the same object. You can do that with blocks (if you have them) or with food coloring. The idea was, don't give them too many variables when teaching something new, or it's harder for them to understand what is meant. So, by using food coloring in water, in similar glasses, you allow him to see the difference in ONLY the color, not the shape of the glass or different objects, as in sky, blue: ball, red: cup, yellow.
If you search the web for stuff to do with a toddler you may find a lot of things, games, experiements, etc. You know you can may play-doh with stuff usually found in a kitchen? and again, can add food color.
Have you started cooking together yet?
Hope this helps.
Okay, that was MAKE play-doh. I think the pen-pal idea is pretty good, because you need some adult minds to communicate with too!

Answer 3

What you can do is maybe have small time picnics on the island your living. See how creatively you can decorate or change the setting of that place, so a sto make it a place to hang out. Have a few parties, call people from around and where your kid is concerned you can have some small sport related activities for him when he's big enough, now he'd just be happy to tag along. Hope this works out for you coz I know how boredom can get to anyone's brains.....so All the best????

Answer 4

It sounds like you need some "adult" communication. When you are a stay at home mom with a young child and you have no regular communication it gets very difficult. I remember going through all that. See if there are any groups you can hook up with in your community. I assume you are not alone on the island, right? Maybe you can find someone you can befriend who would be willing to come pick you and your child up to go someplace.

Answer 5

Buy your son some Duplo blocks, and you should take up soap operas. Join a book club. Don't get involved with those religous groups, they're a bad influence. Move to the city.

Answer 6

Swim with the dolphins. They told me they are just waiting for you to come out. Don't be afraid life is full of joy and wonderment. Get a good Internet connection, learn all about stocks and commodities. I bet you would not be bore again.

Answer 7

Whatever happened is for our goodself,
Whatever happening is for our goodself &
whatever will happen is also for our goodself and then think about the goodevents which was happened in ur life and dream what do u want to become and the always set goals and hard work to reach the target then u won't loose ur zeal & enthusiasm.

Answer 8

well how about u ask your hubby if u can take him to and from work sometimes... b/c you have things to do also... i had this prob. w/ my hubby.... if not get like lil activities 4 yall to do, like scrap book, teach him how to count to 10-15 if he don't already know how to, call some one and see if they can run u here or there.?.? well i'm sry u are stuck in the house i know how that feels.... best wishes =)

Answer 9

I dont even have a scooter.

Yet I am happy and contended.

Why dont you just meditate, accept the humbler things in life?

It will be all right. You need change of thought.

Answer 10

Find your purpose in life, not a hobby, your purpose, what you really want to do and would enjoy. And begin to achieve that. TV, Video Games is not the answer!!!!!