Boredom with Housewifery

Off on her journey

I mentioned before that I was feeling restless and dissatisfied lately. While planning some future trips helped, basically this serves as a distraction and doesn't address the real problem, which has to do with little R.

The problem isn't little R herself. She is so much fun now: today I took her for a walk in the park and she roamed independently for about 40 minutes, walking and climbing on her own power the whole time. She's just starting to talk, saying "likalikalik" for "I like this" and "Na Na Na!" for "no". She sleeps well and eats excellently; she's working on using a cup and spoon (very excited for this; once she can do it, meals will really be a breeze).

It's so much easier to care for her now, even with tantrums, mobility and the discovery of naughtiness (as in, now she is capable of deliberately disobeying/breaking rules). This is actually the problem. When she was a small infant, she really needed my constant attention (after all, she ate every two hours! that alone was a full-time job). Now she doesn't: she will play by herself for hours on end, busily rearranging her books, toys and various household objects. And living in an apartment and with only one child, I just do not have enough household chores to fill up more than a couple hours.

Climbing over a tree branch

This leaves me with a lot of spare time, in a sense. I can't do anything requiring sustained attention, because little R still needs to be frequently watched and checked on (a silence of more than five minutes often means she is doing something forbidden), and because she still frequently requires attention (hugs, diaper changes, comforting, etc.: I would say at least every ten minutes she likes to check on me), even if it's not a constant thing. I also am bound to the house for 14 or 15 hours of the day, when she's sleeping, even though I have free time then. Unfortunately I don't feel that she's ready for preschool yet: she still needs the security of my presence, and the calm predictability of staying at home.

But sitting around watching little R do her developmentally appropriate tasks is just not enough mental stimulation (especially all day long; if it was just a few hours, as it is for working parents, I think I would feel differently). I need something else to do. What, I am not sure.

It needs to be something home-based, productive, and non-screen-oriented. Reading doesn't work very well because of the sustained attention problem. Too bad I don't know how to sew: I could take up clothes-making like a old-time housewife (this used to consume most of the female population's working hours).

So far I have dealt with this problem by keeping busy: we do at least one activity every day involving leaving the house. But it's only a stopgap solution. Honestly, I'm not sure what to do.