By Nancy Olsen-Harbich, MA
Winter weather that keeps kids cooped up inside presents a real challenge to parents. Without fresh air and opportunities for vigorous outdoor play, children can get that bored, restless feeling we call “cabin fever.” This leads them to behave in unacceptable ways: whining, fighting, acting out to get attention, or roughhousing to release tension. While it may be tempting for parents to allow children to spend long hours staring at a television or computer screen, in the long run such inactive diversions can intensify cabin fever.
Here are some ways you can help your young children release excess energy and use their time creatively:
- Provide opportunities for vigorous physical activity. Dress children warmly and take them outside to play for short periods of time. When that isn’t possible, allow them to actively play indoors. Dance and do aerobic type activities together. You can also designate an area of your house where it is okay to wrestle and roughhouse. Furnish the space with old rugs and cushions, and set limits on how rough they can get.
- Fill the kitchen sink or bathtub with water and let kids splash, make bubbles, and just enjoy the sensation of running their hands through water. Provide plastic containers for measuring and pouring, and spoons and spatulas for splashing. Water play can reduce stress, and little hands that work out in water may be less likely to be used to hit another child. Remember that young children near water need close supervision.
- Put together a creative arts and crafts kit. Include such items as crayons, washable markers, construction paper, felt and fabric remnants, yarn or string, beads and buttons. Bring out the kit when your child is looking for something interesting to do, and then make something new and fun together.
- Put on a play or show. Let kids dress up in old clothes and use safe props to act out a favorite story or one they just made up.
- Put together a family photo album. Share your family’s history and your own childhood experiences with your children.
- Let children participate in household tasks of their choice. Teach kids how to bake and decorate a cake, or prepare the evening meal.
- Drop everything when it snows. Unless it’s bitterly cold outside, take your children out to play in the snow. Build snowmen or snow forts, make snow angels, go sledding, and throw snowballs (but not at each other).
Finally, remember that adults can get cabin fever too. Arrange to spend time alone, or with your partner or friends. This “time off” can help you come back refreshed to really enjoy and appreciate the time you spend with your children.
Nancy Olsen-Harbich is Program Director and a Human Development Specialist with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County’s Family Health and Wellness Program. She can be reached at 631-727-7850 ext. 332 or at no18@cornell.edu.