Ahh, the eternal question of what to do with children on the weekend. This has long vexed me as my son is now 3 years old and incredibly active.
Many parenting websites are populated with crafting ideas, games to try and new venues to check out. These are usually large ideas requiring forethought, travel time and energy on behalf of the parent; the confluence of these things all occurring in the same weekend is unlikely.
Coincidentally, I believe I may have solved this issue while trying to stay busy in New York City last weekend. It was the weekend of July 4th and I packed everyone up on the Q train and headed out to Coney Island.
It took over an hour to get there.
It was not my first trip to Coney Island, nay, I've been there many times. That is to say, I am familiar with the demographic on the beach. But when we stepped out off of the train platform that day, all I could say is wow... July 4th is truly a special holiday.
We paraded up and down the overheated boardwalk looking for a Nathan's Hot Dog Stand without an epic line up. Lined up anyway. Then we lined up to by tickets to the carnival rides. Now, stay with me. This is where is gets interesting.
My three year old rode on all the kid rides, the train, the boat, the monster trucks. We stood off to the side and he would wave as he saw us. When we would see him, chug, float or zoom by we would jump up and down and scream for him to wave. Judging by the expression on his face that day, I was surprised to see that he was Bored! After everything we had DONE!
The next day I switched it up. We went to the playground across the street armed with a few cars, some balloons left over from a birthday party and some bubbles that have been sitting around here for, like, ever.
We got to the playground and our boy immediately located a kindred spirit. A child who also liked to race cars down the slide? Amazing. They ran, jumped, swung and pretended they were being chased by giant spiders while I got to sit in the shade, relax and listen to my favorite sound in the world, my son laughing.
The key takeaway is this: think small. Planned family activities are overrated and over complicated. Find a patch of grass somewhere close by and just play. If you don't know how, I'm sure your kids can show you what to do.
