*Sponsored Content by Robitussin
It’s 4 pm. Connor just woke up from a nap. The sun is already setting and it’s snowing outside.
“What do you guys want to do?” I ask because I have no idea what we are supposed to do. “Read or watch TV?” I immediately regret these options. Tommy will fall asleep if we do either but it’s too late for a nap and too early for bed time.
“Go outside?” I know we can’t. It’s too cold and wet but Tommy will say no.
I curse daylight savings and the forecast before putting on some music and encouraging a dance party I know won’t last beyond ten minutes. How many more minutes until bed time???
Surviving Cabin Fever
We all know what’s coming here in New England. The winter can be long, especially for those of us with small children who are too young to have daily after school activities or have siblings with a strict nap schedule.
As a kid, you like winter. It’s fun, you’ve got the holidays, an excuse to sleep in and watch movies all day. But now as a parent with two toddlers who lives in a city apartment, winter is giving me anxiety and it hasn’t even begun. The shorter days really test my ability to be a fun, calm and organized Pinterest mom.
When it gets dark at 4 pm and you can’t go outside post nap, yet you don’t have a ton of space inside your home for toddlers to run, do I force my kids to find new hobbies outside of a swing set or jungle gym? We can only build so many castles out of Magnatiles before Tommy has an epic melt down from yet another creation being destroyed by his little brother. I haven’t purchased ear plugs just yet, but I’m close. Some one seems to always be screaming from delight or anger.
While we are thinking of moving, we are locked in for this upcoming winter here in Boston. I will be exploring a variety of new activities like baking (who doesn’t love egg shells in their cookies?) as well as art projects that hopefully don’t ruin the few pieces of nice furniture we actually have.
“Don’t touch that! Why would you try to put it in your mouth!?”
In addition to my distaste of having to clean up after toddler art projects, I also go from being an “eat dirt” kinda mom to a germaphobe in winter.
We love the library and museums to get out of the house but as someone who has dealt with postpartum anxiety, these common spaces are like hazmat situations in my head with yellow tape across every sensory toy, table or display. I imagine these public play spaces become a literal breeding ground for bacteria lurking in every corner. I walk around with hand sanitizer and make the boys apply it every 5 minutes.
As if cabin fever doesn’t make me feel insane enough, this habit does.
Even at our farm class a few weeks ago, there was a girl who sounded like she had the croup. Tommy and Connor would not stop following her around! There were plenty of kids in the class to play with but they wanted to touch all the toys the coughing girl was obsessed with. We’ve only had one emergency room visit with Connor, a year ago when he developed the actual croup, so I do have reason to be scared of a barking cough.
Be proactive and prepare because you will get sick!
Getting the flu shot is a must in our house but it doesn’t prevent colds or other viruses of course and you still might get the flu!
I like to be prepared for everyone in our house. The croup and other illnesses seem to always make themselves seen in the middle of the night. There’s nothing worse than trying to find a thermometer at 3 am half awake.
In our upstairs bathroom, I think I have all of our essentials. For Tommy, it’s children’s ibuprofen and for Connor, it’s Infants’ Advil. I like Children’s and Infant Advil because it’s dye free. We also have a thermometer, a humidifier, and something to suck the boogies out from their noses. I also always have a water bottle nearby to stay hydrated.
For Nick and myself, we’ve got tissues, nose spray, nasal strips (life saver during pregnancy when you have a stuffy nose), cough drops, ibuprofen, a cup for water and cough medicine. Our favorite for a good night’s sleep is Robitussin Honey Nighttime Cough DM. It is gluten free and made without artificial sweetener or colors. It helps relieve an itchy throat, cough and runny nose. Most importantly, it allows me to sleep so that I have energy to entertain the kids!!! It’s delicious and tastes like a spoonful of honey than medicine. Every dose contains 19.2% real, grade A True Source Certified Honey.
City Winters Are Also Sorta The Best
When everyone is healthy though, winter is a lot of fun. I love that in New England every season is different. The boys are going to love playing in the snow together this year buildings forts, sledding, and having snow ball fights. I’ll love it when Nick also has a snow day and gets to stay home with all of us!
Living in the city has its perks in the winter, too. Nothing ever seems to close when there’s a lot of snow. We never lose our power. Friends are close by so even if you can’t drive, you can walk to have a play date. We can walk to the grocery store and the mall to run around a bit and after it snows, everyone in the neighborhood walks to the nearby park that has a hill and goes sledding!
City living in the winter has its draw-backs but it also has some pretty awesome benefits!
This post is sponsored by my friends at Robitussin.
