5 Totally Inappropriate Ways I’ve Entertained My Baby
In an ideal world I would have constructive activities for my baby to partake in throughout the day to keep her entertained and stimulated, but we don’t live in an ideal world.
In the real world I do try to give her constructive activities when I can, but other times I just need something to keep her from having a total meltdown and I’ll use whatever means I have at hand…even it they are sort of “inappropriate” at times.
Check out the 5 inappropriate ways I’ve entertained Fern and then please let me know I’m not alone by sharing your own questionable means of baby entertainment in the comments!
5 Totally Inappropriate Ways I’ve Entertained My Baby:
1. Letting her play in a box
I’ll begin by saying that letting your little one play in a box is pretty much a childhood rite of passage and is in no way inappropriate…unless you let her play with the long plastic packing material that comes with it as you’ll note in my main photo. In my defense it totally turned a grumpy baby into a happy one and I was right there supervising, so it’s not like she was going to suffocate herself or anything.
2. Listening to rap
…or as my mom likes to say “dirty rap”. Fern’s favorite song is a Jay-Z and Kanye number with some definitely not-meant-for-babies lyrics, but it takes her from angry to elated in no time flat (see the video proof for yourself!).
3. Spraying her in the face
Fern loves water, so I thought she might like playing with a spray bottle, so I tried it out and she loved it. Her expression was priceless. I’d give her a little mist of water on her face and she’s stop in surprise and then laugh. When my husband got home from work and I showed him, he reminded me that I was using a form of pet discipline to entertain our child. But hey! It worked!
4. Leaving her with our doggysitter
So, I obviously don’t leave her home alone with our dog while I’m out having coffee with a friend or anything a’la “Good Dog Carl”, but I’ve put her outside in her play yard and had our dog go lay next to it to keep her company while I hang out inside cleaning the house or accomplishing other tasks. Side note – our house has a main room that is almost entirely windows, so I can see everything.
5. Letting her play with toilet paper
Sometimes you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do to get ready in the morning and if that means letting your baby play with a roll of toilet paper, then so be it.
What “inappropriate” means do you use to entertain your little one?
Lauren Hartmann is the founder of The Little Things We Do, a blog about life and adventures in Portland Oregon. Follow her on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram or catch up on all of her posts here on Babble.
More from Lauren:
Toilet paper – check, vitamins as a rattle – check, food as a distraction – check…
Also, Cookie Monster – Share It Maybe, I’m Elmo and I know it, Bocelli sings Elmo to sleep… just generally seasame street on youtube – instant calming/sleepy effect. I have Cookie Monster on my phone, if he’s screaming it stops him. Instantly. Even when crying in his sleep. Cookie Monster is the baby whisperer!
My 3 month old’s favorite song is Ludacris’ “How Low”…I get some interesting looks when blaring the bass at 7:30 in the morning…anything to make the baby quiet in the car!!!
my my son was a baby and would get fussy, I would turn the vacuum on. For some reason the minute I would turn it off he would get fussy again. He also loved music playing where he could feel the bass vibrate his little body in his chair. Im guessing since most of us use music, the pitches or vibrations the music produce are what calm our little ones. I think that as long as you are not physically hurting your child, by all means do what is necessary to calm your baby. Ive heard of mothers putting their children in their car seats and holding them on top of a running dryer to calm them.
Lol!! My son lives that same song!!!! As soon as he hears it it’s instant happy/dancing baby!!!!
I have totally let my little one play with empty plastic packing material. She loves the crinkly noise it makes and I like how it keeps her busy
I am always right next to her when she has it though (usually folding laundry or something else mundane that I need both hands for) so she can’t hurt herself. Glad to know Im not the only one!
my thing with my son is/was a medicine bottle filled with pennies shake that a few times and he would calm down(which may have led into his fascination with money @ age 3) not sure why it did but he would just stop and focus on the bottle rattling. his other thing was bubble wrap whether he was squeezing the crap out of it or jumping on it it would keep him happy long enough for mommy to get a few things done around the house