For parents who work out of town, many aren’t able to spend as much time at home as they’d like to due to out of town work schedules. These family fun ideas are perfect for parents who work out of town. These ideas work great with a webcam messaging program like Skype or Windows Live Messanger.
Family Fun Ideas for Parents Who Work Out of Town:
- Have your kids create a fun memory card game – here is a sample of a simple one you can make with stickers. Then tape one side of these memory cards to a small poster board. Your child can hold this game up in front of the webcam while the parent online plays.
- Have a virtual meal together. Your child can pack a small special treat like a funny cup or snack and can hide it in the suitcase. Then the parent can use these online while enjoying a special meal together.
- Share a story time together in your pajamas with a glass of milk and cookies.
- Have your child create some fun finger or sock puppets so they can put on a puppet show online.
- Have your own book club. Before the parent goes away on the trip, you can do some shopping to pick out a book together (buy 2 copies). The child & the parent can both read it before their chat and then discuss it together online.
- Draw silly mystery pictures. Your child can have a pencil & paper beside the computer. The parent online can provide directions on what to draw (even though they can’t see the paper!). For instance, draw a straight line down, stop and draw a circle to the left, etc. Once done, the child can hold the paper up to the webcam to show his parent what they created together. It’s sure to be something silly & random that will cause a few laughs.
- Throughout the day, make notes about the best part of your day. This way you’ll remember all the news you want to share with each other when you have your nightly chat through the webcam.
Do you or your spouse work out of town a lot? What sort of family fun ideas do you have for a parent who works out of town?
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These are some great ideas! My husband is gone two weeks of every month. He unfortunately has no wifi service for webcam, but I definitely like the story time over the phone idea. Thanks!
These are such great ideas! There’s so many parents who work out of town and it’s such a great way to maintain that interaction between the parents and kids 🙂
What great ideas! I will have to remember these!
Great post! Ummm…can I say that is the sweetest photo ever?!?! xo
Oh thanks! I had to take a photo of my husband to make it look like we were chatting online. Ha! Even though Dad was home, my little guy was still excited to see him on the computer screen. 🙂
What good ideas, it is always hard to be apart from the family.
I love books so I thought the book discussion idea was great. I also thought they could read the book together on SKYPE and know that you are reading the book and they are turning the pages…Very cute.
Great tips! We always try and skype when I am out of town.
These are great ideas. I was thinking of how a dad and the older kids could do some game time together online. You can play a board game online or something like Mancala, or a card game, etc. The whole family might be able to play a game together.
Dad can use Skype and have some personal one on one time with each child and I like doing that drawing activity. The younger kids might like creating objects with playdoh and Dad has some too. Dad could help with homework.
I think that Dad could have his dinner at the same time the family does and they could “eat together” and maybe have a family meeting after the meal. Another silly picture activity could be where each draws an object on the same page (dad would have to have the child draw his), then they create a story including each object in the storyline.
I think that the parent who works out of town needs to be real sensitive to the need for “me” time for the at home parent. The parent needs to get super “plugged in” when he or she gets back into the home and be excited about being with the family.