March in the upper Midwest is a particularly hard time of year on parents: even though the temps start to warm up, there’s dirty snow and/or mud everywhere, the temperature fluctuates wildly, it’s gray and rainy, the playground is wet and miserable. It takes twenty minutes to get a preschooler dressed to play outside, then they splash around in a mud puddle for two minutes and come back in soaked and needing new clothes. Indoors, cabin fever rages and boredom and frustration take hold. It’s easy to retreat to the sofa with the remote and wish for June, and I have long stated that March is the most awful month there ever could be, and almost reveled in hating its guts.
But you know what? I’m tired of despising March. That’s a twelfth of my life I’m wishing away, year after year. Besides, March is when my daughter Clara was born (a year ago tomorrow!) and I can’t go through life hating the month my daughter was born. I need to get over this animosity, stat.
Thinking back to when I was a kid, I don’t remember hating March. Instead, I would put on some boots and go stomp in a puddle. I remember how much I loved the smell of the mud. I still do; it’s just harder to appreciate it when you’re imagining how it’ll look ground deeply into the fibers of your carpet.
Can a veteran March-hater like me learn to love—or at least, appreciate—this most gray and wet of months? I’m going to try. Some ways I plan to take a bite out of the rest of the month:
- · I will take more photos. Even if I don’t love puddles, I can make the camera love them. I’m finding inspiration from this post at Bring the Family with tips on photographing kids in nature.
- · I will make outdoor play easy on myself: set up an area near the back door with rubber boots and jackets, a place where said boots and jackets can dry after puddle-splashing, balls, bats and other outdoor stuff.
- · I will create an easy-to-access, easy-to-clean area for indoor rainy-day (or rainy-week) fun complete with kid-and-mom friendly games (we like Stratego, Sorry and Old Maid), paints and paper, markers, crayons, glue and dry noodles
- · I will not fear the rain. Yesterday we got caught in a downpour on the way back from the park, and I must say, it was rather fun and liberating to just get totally soaked. Even if, between me and three kids, it created almost an entire load of laundry. (What’s with we modern mothers’ irrational fear of laundry, anyway? It takes me maybe five minutes of actual work to complete a load.)
- · I will spend some time outdoors every day. Even if it’s just standing on my back porch and smelling the mud.
Any tips for embracing early spring with kids?
Well, to add to your brainstorm of things you can do to make indoor play more harmonious, I have been on a streak of rearranging the furniture in the kids sleeping rooms and playroom. They are so wowed by small changes – it puts them in a good mood and inspires new play.
Before I go pick them up today, I’m going to get the sleeping bags out of the garage and lay them down in the playroom so that they can have a “camping party”. (It’s pouring here in Berkeley today.)
I live in the Pacific Northwest, but I spent one March in Ontario (with a similar climate to the Midwest) and did NOT enjoy it, I can see where you’re coming from.
That said, because I live in the Pacific Northwest I do know how to handle rain. I think the thing about rain is that kids don’t mind it half as much as adults. Get some good rain clothes, and you’re set. Add some hot chocolate afterwards and it’s fun times all around.
I’m also starting seeds inside right now. Seeing the first little green shoots come up makes me feel hopeful, and reminds me that better days are ahead and coming SOON.
We are inspecting buds on the trees! A rite of passage that I have enjoyed doing by myself can now be cherished with my son. So, we will be doing daily (or so) walkabouts in our tiny, postage-stamp sized yard that still manages to boast 8 trees and a myriad of bushes.
I hope to pass along my joy of watching buds spring into leaves and flowers. After all, its the reward for getting through winter.
Ugh. I just ranted about bad grammar on my blog, yet managed to commit the worst sin. Its vs. It’s.
Am duly ashamed of myself.
I can say I harbour the same disdain for the month of March, though I’ll admit that there have been years when the snow has raged on through this month (I live close to Canada’s capital) that I have said some very unsavoury things. The one and only thing I love about March? Those unexpectedly glorious sunny days we are sometimes fortunate to enjoy. They somehow make it all worth it!
I would add to the list: buy the right gear. I remember tromping through mud puddles and foot deep puddles of rain as a kid in some fabulous rubber boots that were completely waterproof and came up almost to my knee, plus a coat that came almost that far down. I stayed so dry I could play longer! I had forgotten about those boots, but I wish I still had them. I’ll have to get some new ones, plus a pair for Baby next March (I’m pretty sure he won’t be walking this month).
I grew up in Michigan and lived in GR for a decade of my adult life, so I completely hear what you’re saying. Perhaps the biggest problem I have with March is the fault of overly high expectations. I always get it in my head that spring starts in March, just because sometimes there are a few spring-like days. That means I’m extra disgusted when it snows, which doesn’t help anything.
March does have a few things going for it, though. My birthday is in March, which means I’ve always had warm feelings towards it, and then my second daughter was born in March, which makes the month feel even more sunny than it is. And then there’s February, a month I really hate. Next to February, March seems pretty manageable. 🙂
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