How to keep your kids amused – Hayley Matthews

Hayley Matthews suggests keeping it simple – like splashing in puddles, building dens and making mud pies – and checking out the parentclub.scot website.

From splashing around in puddles to making a mud pie, it’s important that kids have fun

Being a parent in lockdown has had its challenges. I’ve had to be creative and dig deep for that extra resilience. It’s also tough with very little support. My mum is in hospital with brain damage and vascular dementia and my sister has nothing to do with my family so our support circle of females in the family is just about non-existent.

I look elsewhere for that support and have found it in good friends and online mum groups. One of my go-to online hubs that I swear by is the Scottish Government’s Parent Club. I’ve raved about it a lot. However, never has there been a time that it’s been more useful than the current pandemic. Especially when we’ve not been able to meet up with friends or make new ones, the online support has been irreplaceable.

I did some work recently with them on their “Here For You Summer Support” campaign which has been encouraging parents across Scotland to engage online on the Parent Club site and to get tips for having fun with the kids.

It may sound simple but remembering to play with our kids is such an important way of helping support them through some tough times. And especially just now when all we can do is go to the park or... go to the park. Their mental health can be very fragile and I notice the lift in my eight-year-old’s mood when we play and make things fun.

When I’ve browsed the parentclub.scot site, it’s certainly given me plenty of ideas for both my eight-year-old and my one-year-old. There are lots of suggestions for all ages and many things I can do with both my boys.

We especially love anything involving puddles and making a bit of mess, because well, what kids don’t like splashing in a puddle and getting manky? Yep, it’s simple but the best things often are, and free.

So, after some inspiration to go out and have some fun in the rain, we got on the wellies, pulled on the puddle suits and took full advantage of the Scottish rain, splashing in every puddle that we could find. And for a change it was quite nice for once to not be shouting: “No, don’t get your feet wet!”

All caution was thrown to the wind and we were out to play. It also doesn’t need to be raining to splash. The Scottish sea has given us hours of fun and the sea air is good for our mental health too. It’s not always easy though. I had to literally beg and drag my eldest to the beach last week when the sun was out, although, he did say to me afterwards how he had so much fun with our friends down the beach and was glad I forced us all out to have a paddle and a splash. How refreshing that even he recognises when his mental health gets a boost when he heads out and just has some fun.

It’s definitely something I don’t think we all do enough of, just go out and play. Too often we can get bogged down with the stress of life, yet it’s important for kids to recognise fun is good.

So my advice from what I’ve learnt through connecting with other parents on the Parent Club site during lockdown? Have fun, and have lots of it – the support is there. With a few weeks left of the summer holidays, we’ve got this. We can do this!

We don’t even need to do anything fancy, kids love it simple and I often need reminded of that. Build a den, make a mud pie and splash in a puddle. They’re only kids once and how different would you have it if you could go back and change your childhood? Fun, fun, fun! If you tend to be a grumpy stressed parent at times, just like me, then make it your mission to have fun. Your kids will thank you for it.

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