Amusing the Kids when Chronically Exhausted

One of my biggest hurdles is trying to be a ‘good’ mum when I feel awful.  My left leg drags, I trip up constantly and some days I wake up feeling more tired than I was before I went to bed.  I am sure that any parent with MS, or any other chronic illness for that matter, knows the panicky feeling of worrying how to fill a whole day keeping kids happy, fed and watered.

My kids are 8 and 5 years old.  When they were younger I didn’t have any issues with my mobility, so I was able to take them to the park, run around with them outside and go on long walks.  As my legs have got worse, those things that were so easy before are now so bloody hard – I wish that I appreciated it when I could!

Anyway, today is Mother’s Day!  And what better day than today then to share a few ideas on how to keep the kids amused, whilst mostly sitting or lying down.

• Board Games
• Lengthy reading sessions on the sofa
• Giving each other manicures/pedicures – a chance to sit back and have your child ‘massage’ your feet – who cares if the nail polish ends up all over your feet?
• Letting your child put make up on you or playing hair dressers
• Lego
• Drawing and colouring
• Stick some music on and have dance competitions (you get to judge from the sofa!)
• Playing doctors – what better way to be able to lie down with no guilt?
• Snap/memory/card games
• Playing ‘what’s on my butt?’ – a random one but a goodie – simply take it in turns to lie on your front, someone places an object (small toy? Remote control?) on the person lying down’s bum and the person lying down has to guess what it is
• ‘Writing’ on backs i.e. having your child trace a word on your back and you have to guess it what it is ‘just write that again, I didn’t catch it…’ Then swap.
• Getting the Argos catalogue out, letting the kids ‘choose’ their favourite toys and cutting and sticking them to make their own collage. I bought a craft box thing once from Amazon that came ready made with stickers, glue, paper etc and it is great  – the kids just use their imagination and it means the materials are just there.  Keep it simple with paper craft as paint can be a pain to have to clean up
• Have a look on Cbeebies for easy crafts – we recently made this paper craft dog and it wasn’t too tricky at all (though didn’t quite look like the one on the website!)
• Decorating biscuits – buy some digestives, mix up an icing from icing sugar, water and a bit of food colouring, let the kids top the biscuits with icing and sprinkles.  Again, just add a few cake decoration thingies to your online food shop and the stuff is there ready for you without having to do a special tip to the shop
• Puzzles
• One minute playdough – I found this on Pinterest from Creative Playhouse – just water and washing up liquid and my little girl loved it!

And, if all else fails… a movie marathon with duvets (my personal fav).  You know what? Our kids will not suffer for having a pyjama day – in fact, I think it is good for them. Having a bit more time than usual on tablets or watching telly allows them to recharge and for you to have a massive rest. Do what you need to do to get through!

Happy Mother’s Day!