Getting Out When You Don’t Feel Like It
After Christmas, there’s a long, cold, dreary winter, with nothing left to look forward to but spring, and no spot of color to allude to its coming. While I’m usually a big fan of getting out and exploring, there’s something about the post-holiday exhaustion and the biting cold that have me bemoaning existing in this season… no less getting out in it. Because I know what’s good for me, I have to find a way around this. To everyone else who struggles between Christmas and spring break, here are my proven ways of beating those winter blues. As always, all tips are family friendly and wheelchair accessible!
1. Indoor Gardens
You know what else doesn’t thrive in the snow? Plants. They need warm, cozy homes to blossom and spread their fresh aromas. My suggestion? Go where the plants are. We can’t afford to fly to Florida, and we don’t have a long enough school break to drive, so a garden will have to do! We frequent Longwood Gardens during the winter months. In addition to the beautiful flowers that remind you that spring will eventually return, they have a great children’s garden (a little narrow in many spots for a wheelchair, but you can still get to enough for a “splashingly” good time) that can keep the kids busy for hours with a summertime kind of fun. They’re also a part of Access Philly, which means you can get in for $2 with your ACCESS card.
2. Indoor Water Park
Ok, this is pretty much the extreme version of #1. Ladders and slides aren’t great for kids in wheelchairs, but there are plenty of shallow pools and splash pads to fill the need for summertime sogginess.
3. Museums
There’s no better time to look at dead things than when everything around you is dead, anyway. My kids love exploring museums. All of them. Art museums, science museums, mummy museums, children’s museums, history museums: they love them all! We also love being outdoors when the weather is nice. So, winter is the perfect time to meander a heated museum. I like to check out the Museums4All website to find free or cheap places to explore near me!
4. Go Local
I said “local,” not “loco.” While it makes me feel loco that we can’t get out of town because there are no school breaks, it’s also a great opportunity to discover the things around home. Think you don’t have anything to explore? Check this out. Atlas Obscura specializes in the hidden or obscure. Check out your state. Right now. Do you see a place you haven’t explored? Go there this weekend! If your local is the same as mine, check out these great finds in Lancaster County!
5. Get Outside
What the what?? I thought the whole point was keeping warm?
No. Not really. The point is staying alive. Really, the hardest part is convincing yourself to get out the door. Once you make it that far, being outdoors is just as good for you in the winter as it is in the summer. It’s likely that the kids won’t even notice the cold (which is why it’s your job to make sure they wear coats!). Playgrounds and backyards are even more fun when they’re covered in snow!
These things keep us thriving until the flowers poke through! What else do you do??
