Entertaining Toddler's on a Budget: Playdate Turns into Emotional Therapy

It's not really that hard to keep a child under two entertained. The biggest issue is keeping them entertained for a long period of time. We also don't have ton of money, so seven dollars a child for a bounce house, well, bye bye budget!

So we make our own fun!!

On occasions we will go to the mall, there is a nice soft play area with things to climb on. Unfortunately, as of late, there have been a few bullies there.

So, we have a playgroup. We usually get together at someone's house for a few hours every week, and it's a really fun BYOB setting. That's bring your own baa baa, by the way. If it's warm, sometimes we will go outside and play, blowing bubbles, or if it's cool, we will stay inside and color.

Well, on one occasion, during my turn to host, the play date turned into a scheduling mess, and it ended up just being our family, and another one. This other mom knew that I was having issues with Victoria being scared of dogs, so she brought her very gentle and quiet collie over.

You will have to understand that we live in a pet free home. While my husband has talked about getting a pet, we've just frankly never been able to afford it. (That's why we go to free events at the mall, library, city parks, or home planned play dates).

The dog was so excited to have other children to play with that he just walked around wagging his tale. My then six month old son got a full head to toe bath. The dog spent at least an hour licking my baby all over his body, and William would just grin and giggle with every lap of the dogs rough tongue.

As for Victoria, every time the dog would come over to her, she would clam up or run off. Finally, with me holding her, I got her to pet the dog and feel how soft he was. By the end of the afternoon, she was walking over and petting it, and when they left, she sort of gave it a hug. It was the sweetest thing!

We not only had a free play date (all we had to provide was extra juice and graham crackers), I got some adult conversation, my son got a bath, and we had some emotional therapy for our daughter!