How to keep a difficult child busy

[maxeygirls]

difficult child has been increasingly clingy and needy lately. psychiatrist said to expect it as the risperdal makes her more and more 'normal'. Im thankful to a point, I mean for almost 3 years difficult child wouldn't sit still in my lap or show sadness, now she does both while crying about husband being gone. It's nice to see emotion other than anger and excessive excitement but my poor house is a disaster and I'm not stretching the truth.
I need to find an activity that cannot be used to kill, skin, dye, shave, cut, wash or torture a cat, hurt a easy child, make a massive mess, be eaten or turn my walls into colors other than the nice paint scheme I have going right now. Im out of touch-up paint.

 

[SRL]

I need to find an activity that cannot be used to kill, skin, dye, shave, cut, wash or torture a cat, hurt a easy child, make a massive mess, be eaten or turn my walls into colors other than the nice paint scheme I have going right now. Im out of touch-up paint.

LOL, I know you're serious but that's a pretty tall demand.

I'll take a stab at it. I need to tell you that I put making a mess at the bottom of my list as I'd rather have occupied children and a mess than difficult, fighting children and a clean house.

My first recommendation would be a mini-gym if you have the space. We have a good sized area in the family room (away from the tv) and when my kids were younger we had a hammock swing, big vinyl covered foam blocks, exercise ball, mini trampoline, and some IKEA play furniture in the area. Lots of active things to do and if I couldn't be there to supervise, only one child was allowed in the area at a time. A sofa divided the tv area from the gym area so it was clearly defined.

Shaving cream or gel in the bathtub is a good time.

Playing with water at the kitchen sink while standing on a stool is messy, but it's a cleanupable mess. Rice is fun to play with using cups, funnels, etc. and can be swept or vacuumed fairly easily.

Make sugar cookie dough with egg substitute or buy the stuff in the refrigerator section and let her play, then bake. It's okay to eat.

Buy things to contain messes(ie a couple of large cafeteria trays or small toddler swimming pool). Cafeteria trays came out often when we did puzzles, playdough, crafts, etc.

Blow up a bunch of balloons. Count before and after to make sure popped ones aren't lying around for baby.

Pillow pile on mom's bed. Have her gather all the pillows from the house and pile them on your bed. Lay around together. Bury each other. Hide some stuffed animals inside.

Build a tent with chairs and big blankets. Invite the stuffed animals inside.

Have a popcorn picnic in the living room on a blanket.

 

[maxeygirls]

I'm liking the gym idea and I could easily difficult child-proof my back porch for it which has a big sliding glass door in both my room and the living room so Id always see her.
We actually made amazing progress today. easy child hasn't been allowed in difficult child's room because difficult child has tiny toys that are choke hazards and while easy child was napping difficult child actually helped me go through all her toys, clean the ones we were keeping out (woo hoo Method all purpose cleaner), and pack away the others. I won't go into her idea of packing, let's just say we need to open the closet door s-l-o-w-l-y. But she did it, she really helped with little redirection.
easy child was thrilled to get to join her big sister for TV time today and difficult child really liked the fact that she could begin bringing toys to the living room again since they are all easy child safe.
Tomorrow I've decided to drag the contents of my bedroom (think national disaster quality mess) into the living room so that difficult child can hopefully help again and if not, hey the living room gets more attention anyways.
It's the time of year here where those plastic pools are already hitting the stores (don't shoot me those of you with tons of snow, I'll die this summer), and the shaving cream thing might work on the back porch.
Aw heck, I'll try it all. I was starting to wonder about those velcro suits and velcro walls...