Sick day activities that are almost fun

Happy Barf-Day to us! Can a sick day ever be fun?

Milo’s birthday was a whole family sick day. Blah.

Just in time for Milo’s birthday, we had the misfortune of having a Whole Family Sick Day. I don’t think I’ve ever had that before, even as a kid. Consequently, I got to do some up-close research about how to make an at-home sick day fun.

There’s TV
We tapped into the Netflix screens on our AppleTV for some hard-core kids programming. Our family watched the new Lorax movie together (mixed reviews but it passed the time), some old Thomas the Tank Engine shows, Curious George, and even Mickey Mouse. Netflix has a kids area with “view by character” to make it easy for sick and tired parents and kids to navigate into the good stuff.

Don’t forget napping
My absolute favorite time of the day was when we all took a 90-minute nap. Everyone! Me, Alec, the toddler, and the two grade schoolers all sleeping at the same time. Because we’re all home to rest up and get better, I like to schedule in one more nap than everyone usually takes. We don’t want this “sick day” to get the reputation of a party day.

Toys that let us be still
For my 18 month old, I pulled out toys that didn’t involve a lot of action. We opened a box of finger puppets and were silly while sitting still on the floor. Sitting at the table is also good. Little guys can do play-doh. My birthday boy carefully folded paper airplanes from this book of Star Wars flyers he got for his birthday.

What didn’t work as well was the freaking pogo stick I bought Milo for his birthday. A pogo stick!! #sickdayfail

Ready for more screen time?
Speaking of being still, since mommy was not up for reading kids’ books (over and over), I let YouTube read to my child. I didn’t outsource the cuddling. After Susan Sarandon read us both Goodnight Moon, I brought Sawyer back upstairs for nap two.

Bonus points for balloons
Because it was a birthday sick day and not just any old sick day, I used taskrabbit as a home delivery service to bring us some balloons and beverages. Sawyer and Milo loved them.

Do you have any fun but not too fun activities you save for sick days? Please share so I can be prepared for next time.

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RookieMom Heather

RookieMoms co-founder & mom to 3 boys in Berkeley, CA. Bossy big sister and project manager turned blogger. Find me on my other site on 510families.com or hiding in my minivan eating dark chocolate.

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