do you do outings every day in the summer?

[BUSYMAOF4]

I have 4 , 2 boys 12 and 15 and 2 girls 5 and 8...the boys are perfectly fine staying home , watching tv, lounging,video games, its me that wants them to get out every day. We just try and do simple things like the park, basketball. The girls though would LOVE to be out every day all day. We took a 8 day orlando trip this summer and a few amusement park days and dinner out a few days but thats about it... anyways we dont have that many options of things to do around here....I am saving for our next trip over the winter so we are all looking forward to that.

 

[DawnM]

No way. We all need down time. I personally think kids are far too overscheduled these days and don't have enough time with just FAMILY.

 

[QVCshopper]

Such a good thread! I want my kids to occupy themselves more (well, really just my DS) without electronics and me. But I'm so not a sit at home person. We do things nearly everyday. I might cut back some next summer, but not too much. There's so much to see and do, but maybe every other day or so is enough.

One of our favorite things was this get outside program the library offered. We went to lots of new places, hiked tons, read books, and spent time as a family. Really enjoyed it and it was free. There was even a teen component, but my oldest is 8.

And I'm so starting the I'm Bored jar.

 

[honeybunches]

I'm a teacher so I'm home in the summer. Last year we put in a pool and that's really what we do nearly every day. We have family & friends over so we spend a lot on snacks and such, but it's been great. We refinanced the house and put the pool payment in with it, so we're making the same mortgage payment (for a longer period of time though). It's the best thing we've ever done. We do a few daytrips and things throughout the summer but really the kids are quite happy swimming all day.

 

[bettyann29]

If it were me, I would be telling them no. My youngest is going on 16 and we lay down our summer plans, if any at the beginning of summer, so there are no misunderstandings and we know exactly what we will be doing. Unfortunately, I work during the day and cannot afford for her to be going somewhere and doing something every day. Usually during the week we stay home. I bought season passes to Six Flags and Hurricane Harbor this year, so that's where we've been spending most of our time. Luckily we have a dollar movie theatre in town, so we sometimes wait for movies to come there and then we go there. When we go out to eat, its usually on Tuesday because a lot of food places around here do specials on Tuesday. Our "regular priced" movie at the mall does $5 movie nights on Tuesday, so when we go to see a first run movie we save it for that time.

I also utilize groupons a lot and we get some pretty good deals to places on there...

We are headed on a cruise next month, so she knew up front that this was going to be a summer of staying home and she was ok with that. I do try to spend my weekends with her, since Im always working during the week.

Lucikly, school starts in a week!

 

[kayrosek]

I hear that too and it drives me crazy. This summer they've gone camping with their grandparents, gone to an amusement park 3-4 times, a water park 2-3 times, gone on 2 vacations, stayed at an indoor water park hotel, gone fishing, gone to three zoos, a science museum, a pre-seaon pro football game, spent a week at camp and more and yet every time there is a moment of downtime I hear that they are bored. Personally I'm glad for a chance to breathe.

 

[WeLuvDiznee]

I agree with the endless moaning of "I'm bored,take me somewhere". I remind them all the time that when I was young we made our own fun.

 

[hsmamato2]

When I was a kid, if we told my mom we were bored...she gave us chores to do.

We quickly learned to find something to do to occupy ourselves or she'd find us something very unpleasant to assign us.

for the record,this still works beautifully. Bored people can always be assigned chores,there's always something to do! just ask my kids, they don't say those words to me....Plus I wanted to add for OP,why are you allowing your kids to drag you around this way? First you do all these things for them, then they show themselves ungrateful,and whine to you and about you to others.....and you still seem upset by their assessment of you.....I think it's time to turn some tables.....

 

[HM]

Next summer, sign them up for day camp just about every week. I know that's expensive, but then they are busy and you don't have to put up with figuring out ways to entertain them.