Tag: stay at home mom

Posted in Mom Talk

Snow Activities To Do With Your Kids (The Mom Odysseys)

Posted on by Katie Night

Hey dearies! Since I live in Maine, we have been getting slammed with snow! As a kid, i used to love it when it snowed, especially if they canceled school.

For me, on a Snow Day, growing up, we used to go to my grandmother’s house. She had a nice yard to play in, build snow forts and she lived next to a nice hill for sledding. Which was probably the main reason we loved to visit her house during the winter.

Anyway, since I’ve become an adult, I only love snow when it’s around Christmas or New Years, after that I’m over it.

I also live in Maine, so the weather is literally crazy. One day, it’s just 50 degrees, and the next day, there’s a blizzard outside. Don’t get me wrong, I love Maine because we all have 4 seasons, but sometimes mother nature can’t make up her mind.

So, what are the best things to do on a Snow Day for your kids? Check out below!

Indoor Activities

Depending on where you live and how bad the weather is, figuring out what to do with the kids inside can be a little bit harder. Especially if you don’t want them to be glued to the TV all day.

Here’s a few ideas indoor activities:

  • Baking – This is an awesome idea because then your house is going to smell good too!
  • Playing Board Games – Depending how old your kiddos are, playing Hungry Hungry Hippos or Candy Land is always a fun time!
  • Painting – Whether it’s following a Bob Ross painting or just doing a simple freelance painting, painting is always something fun to do on a Snow Day!
  • Jigsaw Puzzles – This is one of my favorite activities my grandmother and I would do on a Snow Day. We usually picked a 1000 piece puzzle, which kept us busy all day!
  • Coloring – Whether your kids want to color or your inter child in you wants to color, go for it! My daughter and I love to color with gel pens and you can get a simple 60 pack of gel pens on Amazon for less than 20 bucks!
  • Reading a book together – My daughter and I loved doing this while she was a baby, but we haven’t done it as much as of recently. On a day where you can’t go anywhere, have you kiddo pick out their favorite books and read to them. My daughter current loves Click Click Moo.
  • Watching a movie or TV show – Usually, I’ll tell my daughter to pick a movie that we either haven’t seen in a long time or something my daughter hasn’t seen at all. Of course, watching TV all day isn’t something we want our kiddos to do on a Snow Day, but switching inbetween activities and saving a movie for the morning or the afternoon is always a good idea.
  • Cleaning – I know this isn’t a fun thing for the kiddos to do on a Snow Day, but getting them into the habit of doing chores is always a plus! Not to mention you can reward them with some screen time, too!

Outside Activities

Of course, every kid wants to be outside and play in the snow. Us adults would love to do that, but we get stuck with the shoveling duty, but there are lots of stuff to do outside in the snow!

  • Build a Snowman – One of the most classic activities that you can do outside in the snow and nowadays you can actually buy kits that have everything you need to make a snowman!
  • Make Snow Angels – This was one of my favorite things to do when I was a kid!
  • Build a Snow Fort – My cousin and I would build these all the time, especially when our grandparents driveway was plowed, we would build little holes and pretend to live it them.
  • Go Sledding/Tubing/Skiing/Snowboarding – One of the best things to do on a Snow Day! I don’t Snowboard or Skiing, but I love sledding and tubing!
  • Go Ice Skating – I’ve been ice skating and let’s just say I would rather roller blade instead, but it can be lots of fun to do!
  • Snowball Fight – My cousin and I loved to do these! Not to mention, our grandmother got us snowball makers, which made it so much faster to make them.

Those are just a few ideas on what to do indoors and outdoors. I’m sure there are a few that I missed, but let me know down in the comments what you do with your kiddos on a Snow Day!

Posted in Mom Talk

Being a Stay-At-Home Mom (The Mom Odysseys)

Posted on by Katie Night

Image result for stay at home mom

A lot of moms don’t have the pleasure to stay home with their children nowadays. In order just to live, you need both parents income and even that can barely keep you afloat. Even then its still a struggle to afford daycare on top of all the other bills as well.

Back in the day, the husband would be out working, while the wife stayed home to care for the kids, keeping the house clean and in order, and as well as making sure that there was a cooked meal ready for when the husband got home.

Being a stay-at-home mom isn’t for everyone. I honestly never really thought about being a stay-at-home mom much until after I had lost my son and got pregnant with my daughter that I didn’t want to miss out on her growing up and reaching milestones that I would never get to experience with my son.

After I had her, I knew I would have a very difficult time leaving her when I had to go back to work. So, her father and I decided that being a stay-at-home mom would be the best thing for not only me, but it would save us on having to pay for childcare as well.

At the time, I didn’t have my license and the only places I could walk were just to my mother-in-laws, which I didn’t do much because we lived on a very busy street. Not to mention, I was living in a trailer park that also wasn’t close to any store at all either.

We did have a mini backyard that I had a swing that I could go out on, which was nice to have, but I felt very alone during the day and even more at night. Since my daughters father worked night shift, I barely had time with him during the day before he had to leave for work.

I did feel very alone, even though I was with my daughter, I felt so alone. The social interaction I would get from her father, was more of what bills need to be paid, what groceries we needed, and what we were going to do the weekend. I felt like I was on zombie mode.

Which is why I started to get into blogging more and even had a pen pal that I would e-mail just to stay sane. Sure, I had my family I could call and text, which I did often, but they didn’t really understand what struggles a stay-at-home mom can go through.

I become very depressed after the 2nd year of being a stay-at-home mom. I loved being able to spend time with my daughter and watching her grow up and learn new things, but I also hated being stuck and alone most of the day.

Thankfully, I did manage to get out at least once a week when my mom would come on Sundays. We would do our usual visit to see my great-grandmother or do something fun for the day either visiting family or shopping or just getting out of the house.

The sad part was, the moment I got home, I was alone again.

My depression got so bad to a point that I didn’t think I’d ever get to the point of not being here. However, the voice in my head kept telling me, “your daughter needs you.” That was the thing that kept me going, but it also terrified me of how she would have to cope if I went through with it.

Thankfully, my mom helped me get myself out of the tunnel of darkness and back on my feet. After the 3rd year of being a stay-at-home mom, I got a job and started working again.

After that, I moved in with her, got my license, bought my first car, and worked on myself within the first 6 months of leaving my ex. As much as I loved spending all the time in the world with my daughter, I was slowly losing myself.

I never regret being a stay-at-home mom because my daughter and I had lots of fun and she always made me smile, especially on my bad days. If I had to go back and do it again, I think I would, but I would find a remote job so that I didn’t loose my mind completely.

Being a stay-at-home mom is hard, but the memories and watching your child grow up and hit milestones, is priceless. I really wish we didn’t live the way that we did so that more mother’s could experience it for themselves for at least the first year.

I wish I did that with my youngest daughter that I had back in February of this year, but with how my current living situation is, it would be difficult to do. I did take a longer maternity leave with this one, but ended up going back to work shortly after.

Overall, choosing to be a stay-at-home mom has is ups and downs, however, it is up to you to see if that lifestyle is something for you. After being back in the workforce, I personally wouldn’t be able to do it again, unless I was working from home.