Low-cost visitation ideas for single fathers

Every single parent’s first suggestion would be to go to a park, but if you do, find something interesting to do other than just walking and watching the children play. Build a kite together in the garage, and launch it in the park where you have room to run and fly your kite. Materials are not expensive. The idea is not to impress your child with how much you are spending on them, but the fun and quality time you are having. If you have lost your former partner through death or divorce, your children have been dealing with their own feelings and emotions, and taking them out and having fun, is a good way to clear their head, and bond with them at the same time. Look at all those animal channels with the animals bonding; it’s a necessary pastime for both animal and man. Here are some ideas for places to go to and fun things to do.

1. Go to a bookstore and browse the shelves for a book all the children can agree on, and buy the book and read the first chapter to them at home. Discuss the chapter you have read. Ask questions. Tell them you will take the book home with you as you don’t want them to peek, and that you will read the second chapter the following week. Make it sound exciting.


2. Pack sandwiches and juice boxes and water and go for a hike. Make it a long walk so you can spend more time, and stop at the village shop where you can have ice cream as a treat.


3. Go to a matinee and watch a double feature for the price of one. Have popcorn and a bottle of water. Go for the Coke if you rarely have it.


4. Attend a sporting event at your old high school and tell your kids a little about when you were a student, and show them your class.


5. Play basketball with your kids at the local park or a community center.


6. Visit a nursing home on Sunday afternoon when there is some event going on. Let your children see the realities of aging and that we will all get old one day.


7. In the same vein, you can also take them to an old age home and spend an hour reading to the patients.


8. Take your kids to a soup kitchen on Christmas day. You want your kids to develop empathy for those who don’t have.


9. Wash the dog in an old wheelbarrow where everyone can help. Use dog shampoo. Have the sprinkler on so the kids can run through it afterwards.


10. Go and sit at the airport and watch planes land and take off. Airports are a great place when you want to cheer up; it creates the illusion of exotic beaches and Italian palaces.


11. Take them to a pottery class on a Saturday morning and let them paint a vase or make an ashtray, or a ceramic holder for two decks of cards.