Hello and thank you for downloading this first episode of The Wood Daddy podcast
Each week, I’m going to be talking about either being a stay at home dad or wood working and making stuff
This week, it’s being a stay at home dad, in particular, what to do with your children on a rainy day
It’s November and the weather has turned cold and wet
So, what do you do?
Alright, lets get into the show
So, note to self
I’m recording a podcast
Don’t eat biscuits while recording
Anyway, sorry…yes, rainy days
I thought about all of the things that I do on rainy days
And I’d love to say that I have my children inside doing painting and drawing, and cooking, and lots of things like that
But it’s incredibly time consuming and tiring to have that a full day of cooking and making, and drawing with three children of different ages
Because they all do different things, they all want to do and have different abilities
So, I’m afraid, as far as doing rainy day things go, that is fourth on my list
The first thing on my list is…yeap…I default to watching TV sometimes
The next thing is get outside
If it’s raining, just put a jacket on and get outside
The next one is, while we’ve got memberships to various places around here
And they’re pretty good to go to and run off some steam
And then, there’s painting, drawing, cooking, making and building
I love doing that…building
And then, as a last resort, if you’ve not read the blog, a bit of a surprise one, maybe
If you’ve not read the blog, a bit of a surprise one, maybe
But on a rainy day, if it’s just raining a bit or if it looks like it’s gonna stop, then, I do put the tele on
I think in England, if you’re listening to this from somewhere else…in England, they have what’s called CBBs and…or CBBC for the slightly older ones
But I’m talking about children that are…my children are up to seven years old…the three of them
And the CBB is really good
And it seems to just keep them calm and relax them when they’ve been doing busy things
Excuse me
Biscuits coming back to haunt me
But what I try to do with the television is have them watch it in short doses
So, 20 minutes, half an hour of a bit of television which gives me a bit of time to either clear up the last thing we’ve been doing or just give them a bit of time to sit and slow down a bit, and calm down a bit
And it lets me to have a cup of coffee and sit down, and rest for five minutes
Because looking after children full time…as you probably now know is you’re on your feet most of the time and it’s really hard work
There you go
So, the TV…and I do…yea…I do get the guilts about it but…
Then again, as long as I don’t let them watch too long…
Because if they watch too long, they do get really grumpy and they start to fight
They get fidgety and all the other things that come with that
And yes, there’s reports about lots of things and the effects on their communications
But short doses of TV, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it
Then, on a rainy day…if it looks, like, it’s gonna rain all day, then, I’ll get the wet weather gear out…the dungarees, the water proof dungarees
I’ve mentioned JoJo Maman Bebe or Muddy Puddles is the other make that we’ve used before
And they’re really good
You put them on, put the wellies on, jacket on