I am finding myself more and more bored at home. I don’t necessarily want to go back to work because I know I will want to be home when we adopt again and I really do value being able to stay at home with Widget but my mind is NOT stimulated enough during the day.
The preschool age Widget is in is extremely hard for me. She won’t just go and play with her toys. She wants someone to play with her, to play dolls, or kitchen, or dress up. I’ve never been good at that kind of play. Even as a kid, my play was stuff like setting up a library where I categorized, catalogued, labeled every book in the house and then went around assigning everyone a library card or I played store where everything was priced and organized. None of this free imaginative play. It needed to be ordered and structured play for me. Widget is the exact opposite of me in this respect. She has an extensive imagination- she started imaginative play much earlier than the child development books I read indicated she would. Now she does like games but we are still at the age where playing games is hard because she gets upset if she doesn’t win or she plays by her own rules and I am a stickler for rules when it comes to games!
It is funny because I do love the baby age and the early toddler age. There isn’t a lot of stimulating activity there but I’m busy and I think that helps. I also love it once they are independent enough to read or their games are more entertaining for me to play.
Everyone always says why don’t you take up baking or cooking but I don’t have any interest in that- in fact, I hate the mess it generates because I feel like I already spend enough time cleaning up around here, why add to it with cooking or baking?
And I am NOT a craft person. I don’t have the patience to sew, knit or paint. My artwork has always left much to be desired. I can manage to sew on a button or repair a small seam without it looking like a 5 year old sewed it but that is about it.
I read but it is hard to read when you are continually interrupted by a small child wanting to play. And I do TRY to play with her but because it is really hard for me, I get short-tempered and irritated quickly, which makes it no fun for her either. Then she wants to watch TV or play video games and I am horrible about letting her do that so I can read in peace (or do laundry or clean without the extra assistance making it twice as much work).
Honestly, I never thought I would be this bored being at home. I keep thinking it will get better when I have a baby to keep me busy and Widget is older, more capable of playing by herself or has more friends to play with but I don’t know. I want to stay home, I just don’t know what to do with myself!
