It is raining today.
Again.
It has been raining all week.
I never particuarly minded the rain when I was a “swinging single” or a newly married couple, but since having kids it has become a totally different story. When you have a very active 2 1/2 and 5 year old, a string of rainy days can drive you completely insane. Kids just need to use up all that energy they have and if they can’t go outside and run, climb, and play it off, well then they use it to drive each other (and Mama) insane. (I know I’ve got a few of you nodding your head right now).
So when we’ve had a string of rainy days for a week or so, I usually hit my limit. We load up in the car and head to the McDonalds indoor playground. My sister lives in TX, where there are malls all over and each of them seems to have a lovely indoor playyard. If you have one of those in your area, by all means use it. Free is best! Here in the Binghamton/Norwich area McDonalds is the only place that has an indoor playground, and it is about 1/2 hour away. Because of the distance I reserve it for the days when they are really driving me crazy.
So, what’s the frugal tip?
Well, to ethically use the playground, you really need to be a customer of McDonalds. Even if I don’t get anything for myself (and how often does that happen), 2 happy meals with drinks etc, plus the gas money just to get there start running up a bit. So I try to go either first thing in the morning after we’ve had breakfast, or right after we’ve eaten lunch. I can just buy a cup of coffee, or spend a dollar on three cookies and feel justified in letting my kids clamber around for 45 minutes.
I have found that if Princess and Buddy have already eaten they don’t ask for the happy meal. Princess sometimes asks (ok, begs) for the toy, but as long as I prep her up on the ride there she usually gives in to the inevitable fairly gracefully. (I find that the more frequently I repeat something before it happens the easier they accept it)
if it’s been raining for the better part of the weekend, I know not to call my sister because they’re out letting my niece romp at McDs 🙂
by the way, I don’t know if it’s because I use Firefox, but your yesterday’s top 5 links overlaps your profile blurb. I hope this sound more helpful than harsh, I would have emailed you, except I didn’t see an email option.
Well, I spent $2.16 on 3 cookies and a cup of decaf, resisted the initial begging for a happy meal toy, and let the kids run around for 2 hours!!
Udandi-I don’t know enough about HTML etc to figure out why you are getting weird overlapping going on. But thanks for letting me know. I’ve been thinking that at somepoint in the future I’ll have to get rid of the basic blogger template, and maybe even change servers. It’s something I’ll make sure to check into fixing at that point.
I have an unusual solution to several rainy days in a row. We embrace the mud. (Kids are now 5, 6 & 12, but we’ve been doing this for a few years.) We take off our shoes and play tag in the yard. Sometimes with waterguns, sometimes not. If I’m feeling a bit too grown up to get mucky, I’ll sit on the front porch with a cup of tea and time my little frogs as they hop across the wet grass.
From an educational standpoint, there’s measuring rain fall, catching water in pots to use for the houseplants, figuring out the direction of the wind, etc. These also work on cooler days, when raincoats & umbrellas are preferable to barefeet & wet clothes.
It’s exercise for them (and most times me), fun, and only costs as much as a load of laundry and the time to mop up at the kitchen door. If you decide to try it, don’t make the mistake I did the first time – place towels within easy reach of the doorway. I had to mop a lot more than just the kitchen that day.
I’m so glad that you mention the necessity to buy something (we call it table rent). In the Great Northwest, meetings are often scheduled in coffee shops or restaurants; it’s downright embarrassing when your friends walk in, sit down, and don’t buy anything. Or worse, walk in with their beverage they brought from home!
When my kids were little we did the McD’s playground thing on too hot days. The ice cream cones were one of the cheapest things on the menu.
Rebecca-I like that term, table rent. I’ll be using that 🙂 I do agree that if you are going to use the facility you need to buy SOMETHING. The only difference would be when I have no choice about attending the meeting-like if the office (when I worked) was doing some sort of meeting that it was mandatory for me to attend. In those cases normally there had been some sort of deal made with the business and I didn’t feel obliged to buy a meal etc if I didn’t want to.