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Angie Six is a Hoosier blogger and mother of two. Between the kids, her love of food, and a husband who works 2 doors down from their bedroom, she always has ample material for her blog at www.justlikethenumber.com-------------------------------------------------
Summer is rapidly approaching. In just a couple of weeks I will be looking at twelve weeks at home with two young children. While a few summer camps here and there, mixed in with trips to the pool and the library, help the long days of summer pass by, I still find myself with days that I’m not sure how to fill. As an added challenge, my children are five years apart. With each passing summer I find that choosing activities that satisfy both of them becomes more and more difficult. The six (almost seven!) year old enjoys museums, intricate arts and crafts, movies, and hours at the library. The toddler, well, he mostly enjoys running amok. Patiently waiting in the stroller isn’t his thing, yet chasing him around while keeping tabs on my older child isn’t my thing, either. Increasingly, doing things that the toddler enjoys quickly becomes boring for my older child, and she finds many of these activities “too babyish.”
What to do? A girlfriend and I came up with a solution. She has children spaced similarly apart, our children play well together and enjoy each other’s company. We’ve come up with a plan to “divide and conquer” this summer! One of us will take the older set of children to a more age-appropriate activity. My friend can’t stand driving downtown or going to big museums. I, on the other hand, love it. So every couple of weeks I’ll take the older girls to a museum where they can take their time and really explore the exhibits. My friend will keep the younger boys and find an activity more suited to the younger set. The next time we plan a play date we’ll swap age groups and do something different.
I love this idea for many reasons:
- It gives our children a chance to do some of the things they really love without worrying about cutting their time short because the younger or older sibling is “over it.”
- It allows our children to have some special time one on one with a friend.
- It exposes our children to activities we might not otherwise choose. I love to be out and about, exploring new places, while my friend enjoys staying at home or nearby and finding crafty things for her children to do. A mix of both is great for everyone.
- It gives my friend and me a chance to enjoy each age group on its own, for what it is. Each age and stage has its own joys and challenges. I find that sometimes it’s easier to overlook the challenges when you only have one age group to deal with at a time.
If you find yourself in a similar situation, try to find another mom with kids of about the same age and see if she’d be interested in a child swap as well. Learning to put your own needs and wants aside and letting someone else have their way is one of the fundamental lessons that siblings learn from each other. There are plenty of opportunities throughout the summer (and the rest of the year, for that matter!), for siblings to experience this fact of life. However I’m looking forward to giving them the opportunity to have their cake and eat it too a few times this summer as well.
If you have children who are spaced more than a few years apart, how have you made the summers enjoyable for both?
2 comments:
I have done this the past two summers when I couldn't drag infant twins along with my older son. I traded "big kids" with a friend, and one week she would take the boys out, the next week I'd have her son over. Mine would have a playdate and keep busy while I dealt with the babies.
This summer, I'm planning to trade kids with a friend who has two sons the same ages as my kids now (3 and 6). It will be five kids on my week (yikes) but then zero the next week!
Great idea!
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