Mine are now 10 and 12, but when they were younger 2&4, we lives in a very large apartment with interconnected common rooms. They would tricycle around (living room, kitchen, family room) and I was the sleeping monster in the rocking chair trying to touch them as they tricycled past. So - about 20 minutes of me sitting in a rocking chair and sticking out my hand when they came past. Several times they were so ‘silent‘ (heh heh heh) that I wouldn’t even notice they were passing me. We also played this one outdoors with me in a lawn chair!

Anonymous wrote:Putting mommy to bed, where I lay down and am covered with a large number of blankets, 'read' to, and have the lights turned out for me

OMG, we do this in our house, except I'm the "big sister" and my daughter is the mom. She puts me to bed in her room. It's hilarious because I can do the things she does when I put her to bed, like shout "Mommy, I need a drink of water!" She gets such a kick out of it. It's also fun to hear the things she comes up with to try to keep me in bed. She's like a mini-me.

Another good one is hiding something small in the room and letting them find it. You can occasionally tell them warmer or colder.

We had a game called restaurant that involved me (the customer) sitting in a chair with a cup of coffee and a book or newspaper while my kid (the waiter and cook) “cooked” my food in his kitchen and brought me things on trays. Sometimes the “food” just wasn’t good enough and I’d have to send it back. Good times.

Anonymous wrote:I love this thread!

me too. my back hurts today, ill be putting some of these to use

Anonymous wrote:Putting mommy to bed, where I lay down and am covered with a large number of blankets, 'read' to, and have the lights turned out for me

If I had ever done this when my kids were young they would have found me sound asleep hours later and the kids doing god only knows what.

Simon says is another you can do while lying on the couch.

I'm not available when I have my earplugs in (i'm always in the same room) I actually can hear them, but sound is muffled. Relaxes me tremendously.

OP here - thank you for these ideas. Tried to play the guess what you put on my back game and 5 year old loved it so much she wanted to guess too, so every other turn I had to get up and find something. I clearly explained it wrong to her!

my grandma played "orthopedic surgeon" with us. she'd take out a stack of dish towels and sit on the patio wearing shorts with her leg propped up in a lawn chair. Occasionally she'd pretend to be in terrible pain and we'd run to dunk the towels in the pool and wrap them on her leg. Then we'd have to "remove" the cast with a "saw" and it would all start again. She just said in the chair and hollered occasionally while we ran around, and she got nice cool towels wrapped around her legs.

I love this thread!

Anonymous wrote:My kids are teens now, but when they were young (4-7) I would time them to run up the stairs, to their rooms, touch something in their room (the dresser, a stuffed animal, etc.) and then run back to the room where I was sitting and cross the imaginary finish line. I would pretend to count and shave off a second or two each time to let them "win" so they stayed motivated.

After six or seven rounds of running up a lot of stairs they were exhausted, sweaty and ready to stop. Then it was bath time. It was great for rainy days.

But you also had to run up and down the stairs?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Playing "directions" ball. This is an extra win for me since my son is language-delayed and needs extra help with things like prepositions. I just sit on the couch and say "Throw the ball UNDER the table" "Throw the ball INTO the basket" "Throw the ball AT the CENTER of the couch."

This is boring

You’re boring.

My kids are teens now, but when they were young (4-7) I would time them to run up the stairs, to their rooms, touch something in their room (the dresser, a stuffed animal, etc.) and then run back to the room where I was sitting and cross the imaginary finish line. I would pretend to count and shave off a second or two each time to let them "win" so they stayed motivated.

After six or seven rounds of running up a lot of stairs they were exhausted, sweaty and ready to stop. Then it was bath time. It was great for rainy days.

Anonymous wrote:Playing "directions" ball. This is an extra win for me since my son is language-delayed and needs extra help with things like prepositions. I just sit on the couch and say "Throw the ball UNDER the table" "Throw the ball INTO the basket" "Throw the ball AT the CENTER of the couch."

This is boring