Thursday Thirteen - #17

13 cheap* ways to entertain your toddlers when you live in a small town.

1. Wal-mart - Hey, there's a toy aisle, a fish aisle, some music kiosks, what more could you ask for. This one isn't technically in our town. We have to go about 15 miles to get to any store besides the cafe (see below) and the hardware store.

2. Park - Needs no explanation. In our town we have the "Little Park" (kindergarten playground) the "Medium Park" (the actual town "park") and the "Big Park" (elementary playground). We can only use two of those after 3:00pm and during the summer, for obvious reasons.

3. Grandpa's Farm - Not only are there tractors, cats and dogs, but Grandpa also built a big sandbox with its own kitty proof cover.

4. Shoe Store - Trying cute expensive shoes that you'll (probably) never buy and watching the snooty store owner glance at your kids' Wal-Mart stickers and runny noses; entertainment just doesn't get any better than that.

5. Bookmobile/Library - Our town's too small for a library, so the bookmobile comes every two weeks. They have story-time for the preschoolers and then the kids get new books. It's sort of like our unofficial mommy's meeting place, where we are either embarrassed by our own children, or casting glances of aspersion at the other mommies whose children are throwing tantrums, depending on which day it is. Sometimes we also go to the actual library in a neighboring town.

6. Cafe - The little cafe here in town is really a bit of a joke. I don't think any one owner has stayed for more than a year or two in a very long time. It was almost purchased by someone who would've made a real go of it, but some family crises made them have to turn right around and sell it. We go there for lunch sometimes. If you go there between 10:00am and 11:00am they will refuse to serve anything but drinks or leftover breakfast pastries. They only work when they feel like it.

7. Wal-greens/Drugstore - There's nothing that makes a mommy worry about her children like cruising the aisles of all the medicine they might conceivably need in the next 90 years. There's also a toy aisle and lots of random As Seen On Tv junk.

8. Atwoods/Farm Supply Store - Occasionally there are baby chicks and ducklings and such. Also many tractors and other farm-y things to look at. Mommy gets to pretend she knows how to do things like canning and growing vegetables by staring at those aisles and pretending she knows what's going on.

9. Walking - Yup, sometimes we just walk. To the creek (which is a disgusting brownish-green mess, so we just throw rocks and pine cones in) or to the mailbox or to our new house, which we will be living in, in a couple of months.

10. Visiting other desperate mothers - There are a few of these. We like to go to my Hispanic friend's house, and Mommy practices her Spanish while helping teach Concha English. She's a sweetheart, and comes here a lot, too.

11. Visiting Granny - My husband's maternal grandmother doesn't get out much, so we try to go there when we can. The kids beg for cookies and dig through toys, some of which, I promise you, have been in that cabinet for about 100 years. I'm not kidding.

12. Going to the school - Okay, so not everyone can do this. We go to the high-school for which I am the boy's dorm mommy, because my own mommy is a teacher there. We go visit her at 3:00 and look at all the classroom. Maps and fishes are favorites.

13. Playing in the blobbly - This is also something that we can do as dorm parents. The dorm lobby (or, as Mim says, blobbly) is basically just a big room with couches in it, so the kids keep their trikes and other little vehicles out there. It's great for rainy days.

*Cheap if you have self-control and don't buy extra things. (Unlike myself, basically)

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