Tips for Parents to Survive Cabin Fever

With winter comes snow days, which be fun if parents know how to prepare for snow days, but no amount of preparing can completely erase that anxious feeling that comes with cabin fever for parents and children alike. The weather, the responsibilities of parenting, schooling, housekeeping, career management and all the other facets of parenting can lead to a feeling only slightly more pleasant than piercing your ear drum.

As a single mother who works at home and takes her classes online, I spend way too many hours looking at the same 4 walls. Below are some of the techniques I personally employ in an effort to combat cabin fever.

Get a head start on the spring cleaning. Winter time seems to mean that things just pile up. Maybe it's just me, but the rooms seem to get smaller and smaller. My solution? I start doing deep cleaning. It keeps me busy, cleans up the house and sometimes I even find new art projects to work on while I'm going through things!

Try a new hobby or restart and old one. I used to love doing sculptures and different forms of 3-D and 4-D wall art. Once the cleaning was done, I revisited my old hobby. Not only did I have fun working with my art project, but it also spiced up the room a bit.

Redecorate. This year when I put the Christmas decorations away, I decided to give my living room a makeover of sorts as well. I really just needed some new scenery and since I already had all the decorations out, I decided I may as well make use of them.

Get silly with the kids. Sometimes you just need to cut loose. Instead of getting frustrated being all cooped up with the kids, why not try something fun with them. This is a hard one for me because sometimes I get so busy that I forget that sometimes my son enjoys hearing me laugh as much as I enjoy hearing him laugh. So, we combat cabin fever by playing in the snow, reading jokes to each other, having a movie night or just doing silly things.

Visit the neighbors. I happen to have neighbors that I enjoy spending time with, so this one is easy for me to do. But, I have also just randomly taken a pie or something to a neighbor's house just to be friendly. Even if I didn't know them before my visit and we only chat for a minute or two, it's still worth every bit of the effort it takes to do it.

Get a babysitter. That's right. I said it. Get a babysitter at least once a month and go have some adult time. Believe it or not, if you get a fun babysitter, your kids will probably enjoy the break from you as well. If you can't afford a babysitter, try doing a kid swapping arrangement with one of your friends or just go out while the kids are at school.

Don't let cabin fever make itself at home is your household. Get creative. Have some laughs and step out of your normal mode for a while. Be a kid for a few minutes. Do something silly. Get a good belly laugh. And don't forget to step out of the parenting role for just a few hours a month is that's all you can do, but enjoy those few hours!