Creative Childcare Solutions

It is a struggle to find the time to do stuff when you have kids. Some Parents are fortunate enough to have doting Grandparents on their doorstep, more than willing to help out with childcare, but for most of us, it is a case of making do without.

My days get full pretty quickly with feeding, dressing, feeding again, entertaining, feeding some more, and putting children to bed. Add to this the school runs, the cooking, laundry and actually spending some time with my children, and I am not left with much time for myself. I do the horses once a day (thanks to the wonderful set up we have at our yard) which is my own time and I need so desperately. This has always worked so well as I would schedule my visit to the yard to coincide with my children's nap time. They would sleep in the car on the yard, while I had some time away from being just a mummy. It was always a struggle to get everything done during nap time, but if I had managed to lunge one horse for 10mins, as well as the mucking out, it was a good day.

During the Summer months when we have long, light evenings, I could get the yard jobs done during the day, then go back to ride in the evening while my husband would eat dinner with the kids and get them to bed. It is not an option at this time of year though. Added to the fact that my 2yr old son no longer naps every day, and for less than an hour if he does, I am woefully short on horse hours. Time to get creative with my childcare......

 

I could put my son to work. 

 

I could strap him to a pony while I ride alongside.

 

Although, I could really do with one of these http://www.basketsaddles.com/

 

That could be frowned upon though, seeing as I don't actually have a pony, so he would be strapped to an ex-racehorse instead..... So, the next best option was to see if anyone fancied a bit of a child swap. There seem to be quite a few of my friends up for this (Yay!) This means that tomorrow I have the best part of 3hours to myself to play ponies, I can't wait!