Budget-friendly ways to make the most of winter break
GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. — Kids may love winter break but parents and caretakers might only like it; especially when outdoor playgrounds and bike paths are generally off limits.
"I work from home, so I'm having some (time off) but I'm trying to juggle the job while the kids are on break," mom Beth Sullivan said. "It's a lot of hats at once."
Sullivan took her kids and visiting family to the Backyard Indoor Playground in Golden Valley on Monday — an activity Sullivan said was thankfully very affordable.
"I'd love to take the kids to the children's museum and the science museum, but we can only maybe afford to do one of them, especially with four kids. You can't go every day," she lamented. "And if you took four kids to SkyZone, that's almost $100."
She does push the kids outside, and sledding and skating are definitely activities on the upcoming agenda. Still, she says it's a struggle.
"We did Ridgedale Mall. We walked the whole mall multiple times," Sullivan said.
Pediatricians discourage extra screen time
The struggle isn't just about ensuring the kids aren't bored; pediatricians stress that physical activity is a necessity for their growth, health and general wellbeing.
"Physical activity is good for the immune system, it's healthy for our brain to stay active," Dr. Garrett Jones, a pediatrician in Saint Louis Park said. "Go walk the dog outside. Go see the Christmas lights in your neighborhood. Any of those things are good thing to do and be active."
Jones, a dad to two children, said he identifies with the challenges of winter break in Minnesota, but cautions parents against relying on screen time to get through the days.
"They'll be less likely to sleep well at night, and kids can become more irritable if they're on screens for a long time, too," he said. "As a parent, sometimes it feels like if they're on a screen it's less work for me, but really what happens is the kids are more irritable, more fussy, they haven't gotten their energy out and so they're harder to deal with in some ways, which makes it harder as a parent."
