Maternity Leave: How to Fight the Boredom

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If your baby is anything like mine, there will be a period between birth and toddlerhood where all he seems to do is sleep. This period of time can feel pretty isolating and boring if you are not prepared and you can slowly feel yourself going a little stir crazy stuck in the house while you stick to baby’s nap time routine. If you find yourself bored on maternity leave (perhaps you are still waiting on baby’s arrival!) this post will give you some ideas on how to stop being bored on maternity leave.

This list of things to keep you busy during maternity leave will help your brain stop turning into mush and will hopefully give you the opportunity to top up your paltry maternity pay earnings. (SMP is the worst, right?)

Start a blog – my ultimate maternity leave boredom buster!

Dex was four months old and sleeping four times a day for up to two hours at a time when I started my blog. I had become obsessed with Twitter and was using that to keep me busy during his long sleeps when I thought why not blog like my Twitter friends too? The blog was relatively easy to set up through WordPress and it kept me busier than anything else during maternity leave. The best bit about it? The amazing friends I’ve made. Read my post here on how you too can set up your own blog, and maybe even start making money from it!

Find an amazing boxset

Maternity leave is the time to get yourself into a good boxset; when else will you ever have this much time on your hands?! I highly recommend Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, Jane the Virgin and Pretty Little Liars. Ones to avoid? Walking Dead and Game of Thrones. The lust for killing and death in these programmes just makes me feel uneasy ever since becoming a Mum.

Find groups and classes in your area

It’s always a good idea to get out and about when you are a new Mum and not let yourself get cooped up indoors. This is where the amazing app Hoop comes in. Hoop tells you what classes and groups are on in your area after filtering by postcode and age of your child. We loved going to Baby Babble and Music Rhyme Time and it was nice to meet other Mums too.

Play Online Games

From Chess to Scrabble, if you are looking to fill some time having fun, and maybe even boosting youtube brain power a little (because baby brain really is a thing) then all you need to do is gert online and start looking for free games to play.

Play Bingo

I’m not a huge gambler, but having a little flutter on a bingo site can be a bit of fun whilst on maternity. I joined a few sites before Dexter was born by signing up through Topcashback and earning my spends through the cash back I was paid. Any winnings were then a bonus! It whiles away a few hours and when it stopped becoming fun, I stopped playing. (Rule number one of gambling)

Start Matched Betting – an easy way to make money if you’re bored on maternity leave

Lots of bloggers talk endlessly about how much money they make through matched betting so I’ve not gone on and on about it on my blog. Matched Betting is a great way to earn money and keep you busy through maternity and best of all, there’s no risk whatsoever. I spent a couple of months doing it for a few minutes a day and made over £300 and this was while I was working full time. If you have the time to dedicate to it during maternity, you can make upwards of £1000 a month. There are sites out there such as Profit Accumulator who show you how to do it for a small fee each month. Check out Katy Kicker’s blog to see how successful she has been at matched Betting and how you can do the same. (If you sign up to Profit Accumulator, please be sure to use my referral code 199693)

Join a library

Reading is a great way to pass the time and avoid being bored on maternity leave, plus it keeps the brain ticking over nicely as well. Before baby gets here, make sure you join your local library so you have access to whatever books you want. Not only will reading keep you busy during your maternity leave, but it will also give you the excuse to get out of the house with baby and introduce him to the world of books. What’s more, there’s usually baby classes on at your local library which is another great way of meeting other Mums and Dads.

What did you do during your mat leave to keep busy and avoid maternity leave boredom?

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