Hi Martha! My name is Amy and I am 31 years old with a great 22 month old boy. Being a single parent has some unique challenges and finding playdates for both of us has been a good learning experience. Because I work full time, only weekends are available times for us. Here are some things that we tried and maybe you can try them out and see if they help you, during the weekdays too. I originally posted ads online for playdates. I also contacted our hospital to get in touch with other parents or parent/baby groups. We also found regular parks to visit and have introduced ourselves to others playing there as well. I also found children friendly places to visit such as the zoo, parks, playgrounds and by visiting these, we run into other families and have had better opportunities to meet others. Also, something as simple as visiting our local grocery store also puts us in touch with folks that are closer to us. It is fun to watch my little one attempt to chat with another little one also sitting in their shopping cart and voila, another opportunity to meet some nice people!
As far as no outside toys, I took a look around our home and simply picked up some items and took them outside. For example, I saved a cardboard box, and we love to crawl in and out of the box. Or I have a colander (bowl with holes) and we turn on the faucet outside and run water through it. I also bought my son a little watering can and we practice watering the plants outside. We also bring a few small cars outside to play with. Sometimes, we take a towel, spread it out on the ground, and that becomes our little play area to roll around on or sit and read a book together. I also took a plastic pospicle mold and froze water in there with a popsicle stick. When it is nice outside, we take the popsicles and watch them drip down on the plants or sample a bit of the popsicle ourselves. I also set up a hummingbird feeder to attract hummingbirds so we learn to identify them. And sometimes we even watch the street to see if a car, truck, minivan etc. pass by. Once in a while, someone actually walks past our yard and we happily say hello. Unfortunately, we do not know our neighbors well and our neighbors have older children (high school age) so there are no little ones within walking distance to us. But, we make efforts to get out and visit the town or do other activities as well.
I hope you find this useful! If you'd like to stay in contact, feel free to drop us a line. Take care and good luck with everything! - Amy :) |