How to keep your sanity: Dust off those vintage board game favorites

Snow days and pandemic sheltering — it’s hard to mention one without the other nowadays.

The fact is, sheltering for the pandemic has provided good training for children and adults alike this past year.   

So when snow days do occur, everyone has probably completed homebound boot camp.

Snow days are every child’s dream, but they can easily become Mom or Dad’s nightmare.

It’s bound to happen when mounds of snow show up at your front door, and school gets canceled.

Piles of wet laundry, dripping boots and stuffing young children into snow gear multiple times a day can quickly outweigh the fun of a snow day.

Kids can do their fair share of sledding and snowball fights, but there’s about 12 more hours in the day to figure out what else to do.

When the outdoor fun ends, after about 15 minutes, children tend to turn toward TV, their phones, computer games and other forms of video gaming while Mom cleans up the wet mess they dragged in.

Stop, hit restart, and try this again.

Sanity plan first

For the sake of a parent’s sanity and a day at home with the kids, start out with a plan.

Plan a schedule of activities ahead of time to be prepared for snowy days at home.

Children won’t stay focused by themselves for an entire day, so make an organized plan, starting with chores to be accomplished first before fun. It’s great motivation.

If there’s any school work to do, it’s best to get that out of the way as well.

Following the necessities, there are a variety of things that can be done to fill the time — like screen time, crafts and baking.

Snow days are great for busy families to slow down and play together.

Take some time to have fun with your kids. Be a part of those wonderful memories by joining in at least once during a snow day.

Now that everyone is “sane,” how long has it been since you pulled out a board game like Monopoly, Scrabble, Candy Land or Chutes and Ladders that everyone can participate in?

Resurgence of vintage board games

 Human interaction has dwindled since the invention of smart phones. Who needs a face-to-face conversation when you can text?

“While almost all aspects of our lives rely on technology, the board game is experiencing a renaissance,” said Zachary Horton, researcher at the University of Pittsburgh and assistant professor of Pitt’s Department of English in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences.

Whether homebound on a snow day or during a pandemic, technology seems to occupy the attention of youths at home and at school.

Click here to read the full article in our FREE Snow Day section.