Not only a SAHM but a SAHM with no car!!!!

[HayesMom]

My husbands car engine recently blew up and so he takes my car to work every day!  I miss living in a town with people and a library and play grounds!  My poor children have been stuck in the house over the past month.  Hopefully we'll get a second car soon but until then I'm blogging about all the things we do throughout the day to try and keep our day active and full of activities.  I might even continue the blog after my older daughter goes to kindergarten in September.  I'll be home with a 2 almost 3 year old and a new babe in January.......this should be interesting.  anyway any fun activity ideas would be greatly appreciated!

If you want to check out my blog the address is

www.mommyblogger-funwithyourkids.blogspot.com

Lizzy Hayes

[Chicky2]

Eh, we usually don't have a car available during the day, except w/no a/c in 115 heat--no thanks.  Doesn't bother me, though.  We live in the country and have plenty to do w/our livestock, swimming, playing w/the neighbor kids, makin' stuff, cooking, etc.... I will check out your blog later, though!

BTW, welcome to MDC!

[jeslynn]

For the first 3 years of my sons life I didn't have a drivers license. My nerves always prevented me from scheduling the test so I know exactly what it's like to be stuck!! Good luck and hang in there.

[ViridianSoul]

I had the same issue throughout my SAHM experience until very recently. A combination of only one car, living just a tad too far from town, and health issues kept me and DS in the house pretty much 24/7. It got, for me, so that a weekly trip to the grocers was a huge deal, just because it got me out of the house.

Nowadays it's much nicer, because I live two blocks from the park, so it's easy to walk over. The only disadvantage to it is that I'm still not used to the Florida heat...

[HayesMom]

Viridian, I wish we had a park!  I'm hoping that my Stay at home mom blog will soon turn into the traveling mama blog ASAP!!  Most of my close friends are super busy with kids and work and school etc.... They always tell me that they wish they had my slow paced life :)  I suppose it is good for the kids to spend allot of time at home, but it sure would be nice to meet up with other moms or go to the swimming hole..  I'm just glad we're all happy and healthy and that we do have a safe loving home for my children to grow up in! :)

[ViridianSoul]

The park's great, except for the fact that it's so darn hot that there's hardly ever any kids there! DS gets bored to tears within ten minutes of being there. It's better than having nothing, of course! This won't be forever, because we're planning on having something of a traveling lifestyle, buy a truck and a nice camper and just go wherever we want to. It'll work out great with children since I'm homeschooling, and I figure it'll be a great learning experience for them to be able to actually SEE a lot of the US. I've never seen much of the US, either, and neither has K, so it'll be quite the adventure for us all. Until then, though, I'll take advantage of the planned community with its nice little park and all the sidewalks!

[HayesMom]

Traveling would be awesome, you guys will have so much fun.  I traveled so much with my parents when I was a kid that now I kind of like the stability of being in one place.  I home schooled my daughter last year since she missed the cut off for Kindergarten by 2 weeks... She's been at her school for 2 years of pre school already and she wanted to learn so much more this past year so I did K-12 with her after schooll and on the weekends.  Her school goes through to 12 grade and she loves being there :)  All the classes have anywhere from 3-10 students and I love how the older kids help with the younger kids.  We have such a unique school environment!  Hopefully she's not to ahead for September..

[mommy212]

Been there, done that- still doing it actually :) It sucks not having a car!

[xzaviers_mama]

I've been a SAHM for 8 years, with no car...lol.  We've always only had one car, and DH takes it to work.  I have the option of getting up and dropping him off, but very rarely do my 3 boys want to cooperate with being up and out of the house by 7:30am.  Today I have an appointment with my midwife, so DH is bringing us the car at lunch... since all the boys were crashed out when he left this morning.  

Not having a car makes me absolutely crazy.  We just moved to our first house, after living in apartments for all of our parenting years.  Having a big yard for the boys to run in has been sooo nice.  It's still not the same as being able to get out, and go to the library, or the park, or anywhere else.. but it sure beats being cooped up in a dark little apartment with 3 crazy kids!

I worry that if I ever do have my own car, I'll spend too much money anyway...haha.  It seems like whenever I keep our car, I wind up spending money on things... 

[Marissamom]

no car here, luckily we have a lot within walking distance and DF is a student, so it's only half-days of just me and the kids at home. 

[1jooj]

I'm newly car-free, and also recently moved from a lovely place in the country (where, like Chicky2, we could easily be busy all day without leaving, and which was also just close enough we could bike into town if we really, really wanted to) to a big city that is not only not walking-friendly, but is also very, very hot in the summer (100+ during the day and 90s at night July-Sept). So it's actually dangerous to try walking very far with the kids. So right now, during the day, we go nowhere until dh comes home from work. Late afternoons, once the sun is not overhead, we can stand it outside for a bit.

We do all have bikes, but people drive like they either want to die or kill someone, so I don't even want to put the kids on their bikes. I am waiting for school to begin in September before venturing out (my kids are school-aged) on my bike and by foot. I can get a cab, but I'll go broke if I make a habit of that. Meantime, it's Ramadan and we're fasting, so we're indoors, anyway.

The kids have been passing the time reading, doing review workbooks, and playing a lot of games--Internet, board games, chess. They draw and paint, build bedroom forts, play with our cats. We clean house all together and they help me prep the table for breaking fast in the evening. Evenings, I just started going out to jog/walk, and we can also swim in the compound pool, and go out to various parts of the city to walk and check out shops and such--which, as a PP mentioned, means we spend money. 

I don't know anyone here yet, either, so it's not like we have play dates to make or parties to attend. It's been a rough summer, and I can't wait for school to start in another month.

Once the weather cools off, the kids and I will easily be able to walk to the beach, and we have two great parks and a public library also all within walking distance. Even a mall is not too far away for walking in non-dangerous weather (let's say below 90 for the kids). And starting next year, I will spend summers back in the US, so this is (I hope) a one-time challenge for us.

A long time ago, when ds was 3-4 and dd was a baby, we lived in a lovely small town and even though I had a car, I spent the good-weather months being as car-free as possible. I had a bike and trailer, and we went all over town in it. Helped me lose a lot of weight, and save our family a lot of money, too. Those were a couple of wonderful summers.

[Marcyk1975]

We just got rid of our second car. We were a one car family once before when my fist son was 2. Now is a little different because we HAVE to go somewhere every day starting next month. My son is starting Kindergarden and we need to walk almost a mile to school. I also have a 2 year old. We are lucky enough to live in a Village so there are playgrounds, the library a Music class and lots of stores very close. I am worried about walking in the snow and rain. It is hard to make the adjustment to not having a car! A suggestion I have is toy rotation. We have a lot of toys (most familys have more then they need) I put away three- four bins of toys and we rotate them when the kids get board and it is like having new toys! We also load up every week on books and DVDs and books on CD's from the libaray. We have water balloon fights, use the sl

ip and slide or run through the sprinkaler. I look forward to cking out your blog!