Fun at the Park

Hey, only-child moms! It’s Foa Comment, your fun-loving, faith-filled mom friend, on The Family of One! Come along for a super joyful park day with other small families—think kid-and-adult exercise fun, cool crafts, and handy local park tips. Get pumped for your own park adventure!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:04

Hey amazing only child moms, I'm Paul Comic, your part-time working man friend who loves Yahweh, family, and fun. Welcome to the Family of One, who reach your joys and adventures of raising an only child. Expect relatable stories, parenting laughs, and faith-built tips. Let's make small family life joyable. Woo! Hello! Okay, so the episode today is all about joy in nature. Joy in nature. I was thinking of joy in nature because it was Mother's Day last week. We celebrated Mother's Day. So I hope that it was as fun for you as it was for me. And I say fun is because we um we had Mother's Day on a Sunday. And so what did we do? We went to the park and we went for a walk, then played in the park with my daughter. She ran around, went on the swings and everything. It's just fun. Lots of people there, and it was such a beautiful day, so it was really good. And we don't have in the parks, our local park. I'm really blessed because where we live, it's not that like there's a lot of parks in our area, lots to choose from. If you had your Mother's Day not too long ago, happy Mother's Day to you, and I hope you had a wonderful time just spending time with your family and doing something enjoyable for you. What did I do? Made breakfast for my family, cleaned the kitchen, tidied up everything. Does it sound familiar to those who are still doing that routine on Mother's Day? And then we had lunch, and it was just nice time with my in-laws. Then we went to the park, just had a wonderful time, got some ice cream, and so happy Mother's Day. And my daughter said, Mom, it was the best Mother's Day. And I said, Happy Mother's Day to you too. Oh, so if you had something similar where you you made and cooked breakfast and did everything, maybe your child is not old enough to make those things, or maybe your husband was busy, or maybe, maybe not. Happy Mother's Day, and you're not the only one that cooks, makes breakfast, and organizes everything on Mother's Day. I asked uh a few friends and their Mother's Day were different, and so I was like, oh, this sounds like a lovely Mother's Day. Me after that, I think I went to sleep. Me, I I think I honestly went to sleep and had a good nap, but I did. It was such a beautiful day. So I wanted to talk about nature, join nature because if you're listening to this, well, you are, and you are trying to connect with other families, and you're not sure, like, okay, where to go, what to do, and you go to a park, right? Yeah, your location where you live, you're able to get to a park. And I encourage you, like, for example, for example, where I live, there are a variety of parks, and I thought I knew them all. Like the main ones I know, in actual fact, when I looked at my I caught up the local parks recreation department, and or I went to their website. I think I just went to their website, and then I had a look, how many local parks are there around in my community? And hello, I knew there was about five or six, but there's actually more than that, like there's way, way more, like so much more. What do you think of so much more? Uh, I'm gonna say more than 10. I could be wrong. I probably wouldn't even consider them as parks. I don't know why in my in my mind, maybe a park if it doesn't have like a swing and it's just like a little garden. I don't know, but whatever your definition is, obviously, what what my definition of a park was. I must google what is the definition of a park. Anywho, there's a lot more parks to explore and learn with my child, and then I thought, you know what, why don't I get the names of these parks? And maybe one, the group that I'm with, or the families or friends, you know, because we're all trying to just do something together. If you're looking for something and you're trying to connect with other people and you go and visit the same park, because everybody I don't know, I just found out with me. Sometimes I just go to the same park, may unless someone else says, Do you have you do you know this park? Do you know of this location? And depending on if I'm able to fit it in my schedule, like when Olivia was little, am I able to get there on time? Is there a bathroom? What time are the bathrooms open? Just things like that. What kind of things do they have at the park? But once I started to explore more things at different parks, it was so good because there were lots of other community events, like you'd be surprised, even the hidden gems. So once I started to get information about what type of activities, like for example, um, during the summer here, my local community they have like free lunches for children, where they will provide um lunches, and then the children will go and get lunch, but they gotta sit down at their location, have lunch, and then there's also where another park not only provide free lunches, but they also have books, so they bring out all these brand new books, and then uh children is for free, and you can't you get one book per child, and the books it's a variety because there were toddlers and there's like older children, it's for any child that would like a book, and there's and you don't pay. And I don't know if they're doing this now, and it would be so much line, and kids would be so excited. I remember taking Olivia to that park on certain months during the summer when they would have this available, and she would just be excited with her little friends to pick out a book and get some lunch. So I would encourage you if you live, you know, check out your local community, go on the website. What is your city council, what is your city offer as as to look into nature, like parks and recreation, and it might be different for everybody, and then look at the resources, what is available for the public? And so when I dug deeper, and this was the awesome thing. So I call I checked out the website, I called the department, so I called them and I said, Hello, my name is Four. I it's me, my daughter, and a group of friends. We're interested to learn about the parks in our local community. Now, one I I said I wanted there's so many other parks that we haven't explored. Like, and I asked my friends, some of them they said, Oh, yeah, I've been to this one, I've been that, but they too were interested and surprised. There were a lot more parks that we didn't know of, and I call them hidden gem parks. And then I asked the department, is there because I know that they have a crew that comes and cleans the parks because I see them. Um, you see them driving in their trucks and they empty out the trash, and then you know, they're cleaning the bathrooms and they're maintaining, making sure things work. I ended up speaking to one of the workers and I said, Hi, I think it was one day when Olivia and I were just at the park, and I went up to one of the workers and I said, Hi, I'm I have a group and we want to learn more about the parks. Um, it would there be an opportunity where one of your staff would be interested in talking to our group because one, it helps us to get to know what type of jobs that people do to maintain the park. And this man was very kind. He said, Oh yeah, um, just call so and so. And so what he described is, and then I said, Well, what type of things he asked me, would the children like to learn? And I said, Um, how many parks there are? Does he have a favorite park? And what type of tools do they use to fix things like and how often do they come, and what equipment do they use? So it was really good. He explained, for example, if there's a swing, you know, and it's broken, unless people say, you know, they do their daily, they do their checks and everything, and also he talked about the different type of parks, like there's water parks, um, I think we call them splash pads, and then there's just parks without any stuff to play on, but there's like little things like flowers and like rocks, and it's it'll be like a really nice picnic area, but it would is not as large, so maybe you for example you can only fit about 50 people, something like that. So there was different varieties, and I think you talked about the different flowers that are certain parks, that's what makes them unique, and the history of why they call each park has a different name and how they got how they um name that park. So it was really interesting. The more I asked questions, then I told my group, well, there's an option about learning our park and the different parks in our community. And I wonder how many people, like if you're thinking of having a group, and you're wondering, okay, we always go to the park, what else is there? Have you explored other parks or even know why the park was named that? Or is there a hidden gem park where not many people know about? And it's something like a it's a smaller park where you just is really built for having little picnics, it's not something that you would find a swing, or there might be a certain statue that is unique. Like this is one park, and there is a painting section, it is so interesting, and so I explored that with uh my family, and you can set up your paints, so they have ease is in it, easement board, is that what you call them? Stands, and it's built there, so you can't take it, it's like a built to the ground, bolt to the ground, and there's quite a few, and so you would if you wanted to paint, you'll put your paper on the board and you know, hold it up, paperclip or tape or something like that. The only thing is there wasn't I looked around in this particular area and there wasn't like a hose, and I wondered why there wasn't a hose, and they they I think that it was a reason why. So you would have to bring your own hose, I mean water to clean out your paintbrushes and everything. But I thought that was so cool. Well, what if you wanted to go and paint at a park and there were they literally set up like a like uh a painting stand where you can go instead of like a normal picnic table, you would put your paper and you would paint, and I think it's in a circle, so you were all fate if you had someone in the middle, or if you just wanted to paint, like a big room, or do uh finger painting. There's plenty of space between each easel, each um you know, place painting, so a child could just you know ex have fun just painting away and without being so close, and you're outside, and then you would just bring a a water, like a bucket of water, you know, wash their hands in the water, and then they could just play, then go and play out on the slide, but it's further away, so um, it's like one end where this painting section is, and then you have this in the middle would be the slide, the swing, um, all the other you know, things that you play on, and then the other part is like uh the parking lot. So each park I noticed as I started to explore more, they have their own unique playground equipment, and so it was really good. And I'm curious to see how many others have done that. Um just explore, you know, the parks. So that would be a tip for you if you are looking for something in nature. Like another thing is um what we did in nature is I had a friend who was a uh she I don't want to say she was an aerobics instructor at the time, but she um she led exercises, and I don't know what type it was, but it was fun. So I asked her, I said, you know what, you led a you know, adult adult exercise class. Would you be interested when one time our group comes out that you would um exercise with children? I could ask our group of parents who would like just to sign up, and we could all exercise outside at the playground, and we would bring uh fun things like for our kids. I knew for example, they would like to hold things in their hand and exercise with like um little ribbons, or um I had uh what do you call it? Hula hoops, just things that kids could play and do with fun exercise. And she said that is such a great idea. So we had about 30 people all together, and so she led the exercise group with children, so she tailored it for our children, the different ages, and I think we did about like 20 minutes, and she she had songs for kids that they absolutely loved, and her daughter and my daughter, everyone was roughly around about the same age, and so at that time, Baby Shark was big. Baby Shark did do do do do do. I tell you what, we must have played that song quite a few times, and there were other things too, but it was so good because the parents uh we got involved, and then another parent said, Okay, after that, I would love because we're outside, I've got some crafts for children to do. So we thought that's a great idea, and that was about a 15, 10 to 15 minute craft time. And if the kids wanted to stay longer, they could um you know continue on. So it was such a fun day. So the first part is I said to the parents, okay, we've got some a variety activities for the first 20 minutes. We have um, for example, I'll call her Emily. Emily, she's gonna lead the group in an exercise, and it's 20 minutes, and we're gonna have like things with different objects for the kids to um use if they want to, and parents, we encourage you to join along, and then after that, we're going to have a 15 to 15 minute craft time, and that's gonna be led by another parent, and it was just such and it was a beautiful day. It was in you know just in the morning, because then we all wanted to have lunch at the park afterwards. So I like to keep the activity for an hour. One because I didn't want to do an all-day event because one, we're all parents, we have little ones, and you know, everyone has their routine, so this was such a good idea. So we did this twice, and it was amazing. And when she led the exercise, she had her own microphone and speaker, so it was so good because when I played the cell phone, one time I did this exoclass, you couldn't really hear it as well, no matter how loud the volume was. So she bought her speaker and um she just connected it and she had a microphone, and people were like wondering, what who is this group? Who are these? Is it and you know, for me at that time when little families came to the park and we're exercising have arts, I didn't mind other people joining us with little families because I'm like we're just exercising, it's not uh paid at the time. We're just a group of parents who love to get together, learn with our children, have fun, and today we're just picking a local park to do all these activities, so it was absolutely fun, and what I did was I had a section um where because our park, this particular park is big enough for everybody. I mean, it's a big, big park. So, and I didn't sometimes you have to check with your local park because depending on the event, you might have to book with them, but because it was just an exercise in the morning, it's for one hour, um, there were no other activities because there could be lots of activities like people getting married, people have booking a place to have their picnic and barbecue. So you don't want to take up a space where another person has booked that area and they've paid for it. So, what I did was I called the local parks and recreation and said, Oh, we just want to have uh exercise and do some craft activities in this particular spot. Are we allowed? You know, is it used? And they're like, No, you can go ahead and use it. There's no fee because and you're not charging anything, you're just a group of parents who are just having fun, you know, using it for that. So you might want to check when you're doing these activities, especially in um your local area, you might want to be mindful of um what you can and cannot do because every location is different. But we had so much fun, so that's a good tip, too. If you can get a group of friends and maybe different parents, maybe one They don't want to exercise, but they don't mind, you know, doing the arts and crafts. Our one we kept it very simple. We just had um she just bought paper. She had our coloring, coloring pictures and crayons. We didn't want to do anything with paint at the time because one is messy, and she had stickers. And so she just it was just very lovely after the kids exercised, had fun, and they got all their zoomies out. I called them zoomies because they love to zoom zoom around. You know, they walked around. Then we said, Well, you're welcome to do some arts and crafts, or you can go all together and play in the playground. So it it gave them a variety of options, but first we wanted the group to come together, then go and have a choice. And then we all had lunch. We came back and all had lunch. So that was such a good day. So I'm hoping that as you're listening to these uh episodes, I'm gonna talk about more different uh field trips and activities. That way you get inspired to do some you know joyful gatherings, or maybe you have a friend, you don't want to lead it, but you have a friend who absolutely loves this kind of planning, organizating, organizating is such a word, just making that one out, and they love doing this. Well, maybe you can tell them, hey, maybe we can like shoosh it up a bit. Did I say shoosh? Oh my god, spruce it up a bit with a I don't know, go to a different pike, throw in a different activity. These will give you an idea to continue to connect. Where one, you're still having fun with your child, two, you're connecting with friends and you're making new friends, and three, it allows you to kind of get to know the other parents more, you know, what they enjoy doing, what they're already doing. Maybe they have a part-time job, maybe they don't, maybe they're just something they always want to do, but they're like, huh, yeah, I can do this. So I'm just and I always keep it within an hour. I don't go over because I don't know, it's a lot, you know what I mean, and you don't want to also I'm just saying it worked for an hour for me if I was doing any activities, an hour or less. That's great. So, moms, you I wanted to tell you so much that you are the best mom for your child. You truly are, you are amazing. You are doing the best with the time that's given to you, with the resources you have, and I wanted to continue to encourage you to continue to say nice things about yourself. I mean, look at your hands, those are amazing hands. Like when you see yourself in the mirror, really appreciate what you got going on there. I mean, I tell you what, I try and tell myself as best as I can, wow, you're doing great, and continue, continue to give yourself a hug, you know, and take the time for yourself. Like, I try my best, I try my best in the small moments and in the big moments. If I can get a nap, boy, this girl is napping. I am sleeping wherever I can because that brings me joy. It's just those things. Um, I just want to say thank you so much for listening to the family of one. And so look forward to hearing more other, you know, activities as I continue to share. And I'm wanting to know that if you need, if you're wanting to um you have an idea, you're not sure, give me an email. Email it to me, uh, let me know, connect with me, and I will love to help. Maybe, or maybe um it's one of an activity that I've done, and I can share with you how I went about it with my group when I did the Little Local Ventures. I mean, Olivia was two, so she's I no longer have that group, but um yeah, that was amazing. Okay, well, thank you very much again, your friend, and we'll connect in the next episode. Bye.