Parenting

Ways to Spend Time with Your Kids Affordably

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We all know that every Sunday is the day that we recognize as “Family Day.” We spend time with the family especially with our kids. We make-up for the lost time and update ourselves with what’s happening in their lives.

When we spend time with our kids, there is a big chance of spending lots of money! We eat outside. Go to the movies. Go shopping. Go to the beach and so on. There are a lot of activities that usually entails spending money.

Sometimes, we tell ourselves that spending lots of money is spending a lot of quality time with the kids. That’s a big LIE! More often than not, when we engage in money-spending activities we spend lesser time talking and mingling with the kids. When we go shopping, you’re conscious on what to buy. When we eat outside, we couldn’t spend much time talking because you don’t own the place – when your finish eating, you get out! When we go to the beach, you’re worried about the children’s safety.

Anyway, I am not saying that these activities are not good. They are actually fun and very addictive (especially shopping). What I am saying is, spending every Sunday with these kind of activities will really put the family off the budget. We also need to be practical.

Here some ideas on how to spend time with your kids affordably every Sunday:

• Plan your day. Don’t forget to attend church. This is a must priority in your Sunday schedule. Plot it anytime you want, as long as it’s part of the schedule.
• After church (for us, it’s always around 4pm), go home. Make sandwiches together. Let the children help you prepare their snacks. Make different sandwiches every other Sundays. Make your children experiment. After making your snacks, eat together and TALK!
• If you have an aircon at home, you can turn it up…get the latest DVD, turn off the lights and watch together. You’re in your very own movie theater minus other people! After, discuss the movie and make sure that they have understood what lessons that they should imitate or what shouldn’t.
• Buy coloring books or print from the internet. Let their creative mind go to work. Color with them while TALKING. You can also have crafts.
• You can also spend time with them at the bed or at the sofa…I call it “lazy afternoon” or “loving-loving.” Just lie around and snuggle each other or plainly talk about anything.

There are a lot of ways…just be creative on how to do it. Just make sure that the common denominator is “communication.” Make sure that you talk with each other. Give the children the opportunity to talk about their lives, their needs & wants, their ideals and perceptions. When they talk and you listen…it’s another manifestation of love!

Lifestyle Mommy Blogger and Virtual Assistant from Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines. Aside from doing product reviews and events coverage, she blogs about solo parenting, homeschooling, and things in between.

4 Comments

  • Lalaine

    very well said Rubz..i agree with you coz what matters is the quality time we spend with our kids where we give them our full attention.

  • may

    correct! i know it’s easier said than done but working moms should make an extra effort to make their time with their babies fun and affordable… it is quite easy in the summer because daylight is longer but come autumn its beginning to get tough, here is my suggestion for fun activities in autumn- CHRISTmas:
    collecting dry leaves, now that my baby is walking it is much easier because i can leave his buggy at home and just have a nice little stroll. when you got home, hang the leaves dry.
    a few days after, when the leaves are dry, you can start painting them w/ different colors, it is not only fun but educational too, it stimulates you baby’s imagination and senses. let the paint dry.
    keep the painted leaves and on CHRISTmas you can hang them in the CHRISTmas tree… yehey! fun, affodable, educational and it is something 4 the kids to look forward to every autumn… kinda little family tradition of your own di ba.

  • Istin (@istin21)

    i agree. for me and my kids, its always a dvd marathon of cartoons everyday. aside from that, we just bike around the village in the afternoon. or swim in the village’s clubhouse. they are still ways to spend time with kids for free. 😀

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