Spring Festivals With Little Ones

Spring is in the air, and spring festivals are popping up all over the place! Spring festivals in many areas are held to celebrate one very important feature of spring: flowers! There are tulip festivals, daffodil festivals, lilac festivals, cherry blossom festivals… and the list goes on, depending on which flowers are in bloom in your area. Of course, spring also features music festivals and art festivals as well. Here are some tips on enjoying these springtime events with little ones in tow:

• Don’t eat the daisies. Or pick them, or step all over them. Young children often love to pick flowers, but that’s a definite no-no at flower festivals, which are often held at parks and other public areas where picking is prohibited anyway. Be sure to stress to your child that the blooms are for looking at only, not for touching. Stick to actual walkways to keep your child from stepping on delicate flowers and breaking their stems, too.

• Remember the sunscreen. Often an area’s spring festival is one of the first times that people spend an extended amount of time outdoors after the long winter. The sun might be bright and shining, but even if it’s overcast, you and your children can still get sunburn. Buy a new bottle instead of relying on last year’s, as sunscreen does expire and become less effective over time. Also, pack hats and sunglasses to keep everyone comfortable.

• Work around nap times. If your child takes an afternoon nap, hit the festival in the morning. You can enjoy the cooler air, sample some snacks, let your child run off some energy, grab a quick lunch and make it home in time for a nap. Keep in mind that the food offerings might be unhealthy “fair food” and are likely to be pricey, so it might make more sense to pack a lunch and just pick out a snack from what’s available.

• Talk to your child about the rides and attractions ahead of time. If you only want to let her go on one or two rides, tell her up front that she’ll need to choose what to try. Most festivals have a ticket system, where you buy a number of tickets for each ride. You can sometimes avoid a meltdown by reminding your child several times that she can pick two rides (or whatever limit you would like to set). Also, it is sometimes best to avoid the games with little ones, except for the ones where everybody wins a prize. It’s frustrating for preschoolers to play a game and not get one of the stuffed animals displayed! If the festival has a bounce house, make sure you keep in mind our bounce house safety tips.

Spring festivals are fun for everyone, and are a great way to welcome the beginning of warm weather. What spring festivals are taking place in your area?