I would lose my mind without outings! I think my son is quite similar to your youngest in terms of intensity and energy levels. Today is a day off for me, and still very warm despite being more than halfway through fall here so we went to the park this morning and to the beach/rock pools this afternoon.

But- we live in inner city Sydney in a terrace house with no backyard so outings are necessary for outdoor play.

Looking forward to the upcoming podcast episode on toddlers and weekends

@Barb – it wasn’t quite evenly split…we originally boiled 48 eggs, but 2 broke in the process, and then one broke during the dye process. I’m not sure who found how many of the 45!

Um, regarding the Easter egg hunt. Let’s see, 45 eggs / 4 kids = 1 kid with a superior attitude and 12 eggs?

@Megan – my guess is there aren’t a whole lot of outings over the whole population. Time primarily spent caring for a child would be classified as childcare. Childcare as a secondary activity would be something like getting groceries with the kid in the cart.

I’m reading 168 hours right now and I’m really shocked by the average amount of time part time working moms (like me- I work 24 hours a week) play with their children. I often feel guilty about not spending enough time with my son and on work days, 20 mins of play time is probably about right. But on non work days we would clock 4+ hours of dedicated time together. This previous Sunday we spent about 30 mins building a train track and playing trains, 20 mins playing ‘driving’ in our car (not my fave but my 2.5 year old loves it), and 3.5 hours in the afternoon at the bus museum and on a double decker bus ride.

My question was whether outings and activities are counted as ‘playing’ or are they categorized separately?