Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I SAH with a 5 yo & 10 yo. They don’t do camps. Most of our outings are free, cheap, or “pre-paid” (ie, we joined a pool and have a couple of museum memberships).
So our outings are things like pool, library, State/regional/county/national parks, hiking, Smithsonians, etc. We went to $1 movies once. We’ve done some historic sites that cost a few dollars per person. We mostly pack lunch & snacks but occasionally eat at fast or fast casual restaurants for lunch.
One kid was a 4th grader last year, so we use his free national Park Pass. We got the Virginia State Park backpack from the library, which includes free admission to a VA state park.
We also have days the kids play in the yard/in the house/read/visit the playground across the street. (The kids actually ask for more chill days sometimes, so they definitely aren’t bored with the activities we do).

Yeah with kids that age you are just unemployed. Be honest.

And, yet, you pay someone else to watch your children before/after school, over holidays and during summer break, right?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I SAH with a 5 yo & 10 yo. They don’t do camps. Most of our outings are free, cheap, or “pre-paid” (ie, we joined a pool and have a couple of museum memberships).
So our outings are things like pool, library, State/regional/county/national parks, hiking, Smithsonians, etc. We went to $1 movies once. We’ve done some historic sites that cost a few dollars per person. We mostly pack lunch & snacks but occasionally eat at fast or fast casual restaurants for lunch.
One kid was a 4th grader last year, so we use his free national Park Pass. We got the Virginia State Park backpack from the library, which includes free admission to a VA state park.
We also have days the kids play in the yard/in the house/read/visit the playground across the street. (The kids actually ask for more chill days sometimes, so they definitely aren’t bored with the activities we do).

Yeah with kids that age you are just unemployed. Be honest.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I SAH with a 5 yo & 10 yo. They don’t do camps. Most of our outings are free, cheap, or “pre-paid” (ie, we joined a pool and have a couple of museum memberships).
So our outings are things like pool, library, State/regional/county/national parks, hiking, Smithsonians, etc. We went to $1 movies once. We’ve done some historic sites that cost a few dollars per person. We mostly pack lunch & snacks but occasionally eat at fast or fast casual restaurants for lunch.
One kid was a 4th grader last year, so we use his free national Park Pass. We got the Virginia State Park backpack from the library, which includes free admission to a VA state park.
We also have days the kids play in the yard/in the house/read/visit the playground across the street. (The kids actually ask for more chill days sometimes, so they definitely aren’t bored with the activities we do).

Yeah with kids that age you are just unemployed. Be honest.

Anonymous wrote:I SAH with two kids. We can easily spend 100/day in food and activities, and our HHI is high enough that I don’t really need to think twice about it, however, we’d never spend that day after day all week long, because there are plenty (plenty!) of things we like to do that happen to be cheap or nearly free. Hiking, pool, library, playground, playing at home, having friends over, etc.

I don’t know why OP asked her question, but if she’s really spending that much I suspect her kids might need a little downtime!

Anonymous wrote:We sort of fell into this pattern though not as high. I actually calculate that I was spending about $1600 a month on entertainment, lessons, etc. and realized that I probably needed to go back to work. I took home about 4K after retirement and college savings (I also carried health insurance).

I became a SAHM in a fit of postpartum hormones honestly. My DH supported it, but we were in a crap place financially and objectively working made more sense from a financial and practical standpoint.

What was also not great was becoming the default everything because I was always around and this was my job. My marriage was very lopsided and we went through a rough patch. I was generally pissed off and frustrated, my DH was frustrated being the sole breadwinner and the financial crunch not working put us in, and we both kind of went into this really rough cycle.

Everything improved when I went back to work. I left my kids with a quality childcare provider, my DH began to do more and we both began working as a team instead of two people running two different operations.

Honestly, it is such a personal decision. I know people who are happy but they truly accept the role and the responsibility of being the default parent.

Anonymous wrote:I SAH with a 5 yo & 10 yo. They don’t do camps. Most of our outings are free, cheap, or “pre-paid” (ie, we joined a pool and have a couple of museum memberships).
So our outings are things like pool, library, State/regional/county/national parks, hiking, Smithsonians, etc. We went to $1 movies once. We’ve done some historic sites that cost a few dollars per person. We mostly pack lunch & snacks but occasionally eat at fast or fast casual restaurants for lunch.
One kid was a 4th grader last year, so we use his free national Park Pass. We got the Virginia State Park backpack from the library, which includes free admission to a VA state park.
We also have days the kids play in the yard/in the house/read/visit the playground across the street. (The kids actually ask for more chill days sometimes, so they definitely aren’t bored with the activities we do).

Anonymous wrote:Wasn’t in our budget when I sah, so there was no Starbucks run (fill their water bottles, bring my own coffee from home, pack snacks). Library, nature centers, Barnes and Noble. Heck we visited the pet stores more often than I care to admit. All free. There’s a lot of random kids concerts if you look hard enough.

Here’s a tip—while it may be easier now to get them out of the house to do super fun things every day, as they get older they are less likely to be content with the everyday. They will need constant “fun fun fun” in order to be happy and boredom will be painful to them. Try and have a few days at home, with things like backyard time and reading time and sure some screens. But don’t make every day a trip to the movies/circus/puppet show or you’re setting them up.