Buy a Membership

No matter the time of year, you should work on getting out of the house with your child. While summer is often a time to get out with the warm weather and kids at home, you don't have to limit getting out of the house at different times of the year. It does not matter how old your child is, get outside with them for a little bit of time every single day, and get out longer than that if you can.

One of our favorite ways to get ourselves out of the house is to buy a membership to a local business or location that we can use on a regular basis. We don’t pay for memberships that we don’t use - if we’re going to pay for a membership then we’re definitely going to make use of it. We also don’t generally pay for multiple memberships at the same time either as we don’t take advantage of them enough.

Depending on where you live, and what you have close by, you will likely have multiple choices on memberships that you can take advantage of. You may have a zoo, a children’s museum, or some type of garden/outdoor area that you can pay for. There are also likely other more exciting and active locations as well (like theme parks) that you can pay into as well, but those are likely quite a bit more expensive.

With younger kids, we love having somewhere that we can go and take the kids to move around openly without having to be right next to them. By having a membership, you really open a lot of opportunities for visiting locations while they’re not as busy. This is great with kids as you can get into the location so that your child can run around and move around without having more people than you want to deal with.

Also by having a membership, you’re able to visit a location for a shorter amount of time and not feel bad about it. Since you can come back another day, you’re not worried about getting your money out of your ticket for the day. This is great for parents as most kids will get tired of a location faster than you will. Similar to the previous point as well, you can visit when things aren’t as busy each time you go.

So how does this really work? Our favorite time to visit any location that we have a membership to is in the morning right as things open. This will mean there are less people, and you generally are dealing with far less heat. We get to enjoy the location for about an hour and then leave without having to deal with the heat and the crowds. It’s perfect as a parent to be able to skip the craziness that comes later in the day.

Most places get busy by lunch time and depending on the location will be packed until closing (or close to it). If the location is outdoors, you’re also avoiding being out in the sun all day long. When you pay for a single day ticket, you’re often going to feel like you have to stay at the location for a longer time to get your money’s worth out of your ticket. This is not ideal as your child is far more likely to sink into tantrums when they’re tired and hot.

If you live near places that offer memberships, consider buying into them to take advantage of the location on a regular basis. You’ll likely find that spending a shorter amount of time at the location is better than spending a full day at the location.