The outdoors is still free to everyone, if you don't have a mountain to climb or a forest to hike in then you must have a desert, a canyon, a lakes sytem, rivers, creeks and ponds or swamps or oceans -(maybe a backyard) every part of the U.S. has something that can be used to re-direct kids energies. And, say that you are stuck in a bubble somewhere where there is no outdoors-then there are libraries, museums, art galleries, and so on where energy can be re-directed. All of which can be free, if not all the time, part of the time.How about teaching them to volunteer at an animal shelter, a food bank, or at clean up day?
Instead of taking my example as the only literal way to deal with kids, try some imagination for crying out loud. The whole point is you do deal with your child as an individual who needs your guidance. What works for one may well not work for another. Some do work 2 two jobs, and I had times where I did that too, but you know what my kids were with responsible people who could do the same things I did-get them outside and busy, or inside and busy.
People who don't want to parent have a million reasons why they "can't" do what I did, when it really boils down in most cases and read MOST cases to not wanting to put the intelligence, energy and effort into doing a good job of it.
Lillith
What money? I was single mom with two kids and I make 12,500 before taxes. We had no money. Everything we did was free and outside. I borrowed equipment or bought old and used at big sales where people unloaded their used skis and camping equipment and so on. I had no money for fun stuff. We barely made it through every winter. Time? I had one weekend every week just like everybody else. I got home at 5:30pm and we had until bedtime, like everybody else. It wasn't that difficult. What I didn't do was run around every night entertaining myself, that's why I had time.
