Need Ideas for In-Law Activities, SIL Is 8

rachelmattstvan · February 2014

Most of my husband's immediate family is coming down for the weekend, and I'm not sure what to suggest in terms of activities. His only sister is 8, and the two brothers are young adults. Typically family activities cater to her interests, but I was hoping to find something that would be enjoyable everyone else and her.

Does anyone else have huge age gaps between siblings/in-laws?

What are some ways to make a much younger sibling feel included without driving the adults mad with activities geared for elementary-aged kids?

Mamageedee · February 2014

How about any museums or amusement parks?

erollis · February 2014

Bowling, ice skating, card/ board games (apples to apples, life, clue, monopoly, sorry, pick up sticks), museums, zoo, theme park, beach, pool, going out to eat, paint your own canvas/ plate/ whatever, tour of the city, movies (at home or the theater), see a musical/ ballet/ concert, miniature golf, festival, rodeo, shopping, go to a park, video games.

I'm 20 years older then my youngest sibling. I have done just about every activity listed above with him. If they haven't done something before it will broaden their horizons (or yours). You may own a movie you loved as a kid. Maybe they haven't seen it. So make some food or order in and watch it. Have a favorite place to eat? Take them there. If the child is impatient or gets board easily it's a good opertunity to learn it's not all about what they like.

More times then I can count I was the only child in a group of adults. They weren't always doing things to keep me occupied. I had to play with my couple of toys I brought on our trip or just listen to what the adults were talking about for hours.

DaringMiss · February 2014

Indoor rock climbing. Fun and terrifying for all ages!

TarponMonoxide · February 2014

Why can't you all play Charades or some board game that everybody can participate in?

Clue or Life or Jenga -- or when everybody comes over a movie on video everybody can enjoy. Anything comedy and classic is for kids of all ages. Find a movie like "it's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World" and everybody can watch it.

Erikan73 · February 2014

Walk in a local park.
If you have snow, do you have a place like a park system where you can go rent snowshoes from. If you can walk you can snowshoe.
Paint your own pottery place
Putt Putt
Bowling
Make your own pizza night
Go-carts (she would probably have to be a passenger in someone else's car) or maybe the guys could do this for some brotherly/dad bonding time while the girls go off and get manicures?

Tofumonkey · February 2014

Why are the majority of your adult family gatherings geared toward appeasing an 8 year old?

I get that an activity here or there that she would enjoy is nice... but to dominate your plans seems a bit off to me.

rachelmattstvan · March 2014

There is a big emphasis on including everyone all the time, but to do that they need to make sure she is involved and happy. It does put a damper on things because it's difficult to connect with everyone else when all activities and dialog has to be approved for an 8 year old. My MIL was the baby of the family with an age gap and she was excluded by her siblings growing up. I think that is why inclusion is so important for her.

My husband and I have been together for going on three years, and I have only had one one-on-one conversation with my MIL. My husband hasn't had time with just his parents in years. It's not that they try to exclude us, but rather they want everyone to feel like part of the group. That ends up making it difficult for us to connect because we live far away from them and when we visit them (or vise versa), our time is always spent as a group.

The weekend went okay overall, but we're still not connecting (especially with MIL) as adults. All of the time was one big group activity with no interest for splitting up the group or trying to spend time with just MIL/FIL.

Sillygirl45 · March 2014

Sorry you're dealing with this. I was the youngest and it wasn't fun to always sit there while the adults hung out.

On the other hand, I have a BIL who is 16 years younger than H. He's older now, so it's easier, but IL's didn't always cater to him. We still had evenings alone after he was in bed.

Unfortunately, you may not get to know them on an individual level until the little one has grown up a bit. I don't personally think that's healthy, but I'm not them and no one can dictate their behavior.

Good luck!

Need Ideas for In-Law Activities, SIL Is 8

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