[social_quotient]

Might be off topic but a nugget from having two girls (5 and 11). Kids don’t care about budget or how much things cost. We have toys we’ve spent hundreds of dollars on only to have the near free to free one be a hit. I say this to make sure you know your employment status likely only effects your kids if it effects you. Or said differently, to the extent it effects you it will effect them.

Kids will generally have fun with anything you show a degree of interest in. The copper pipe plumbing example in this thread is a perfect example. A simple Task became a life long activity for the kid. They will remember it forever and tell someone in the future “this time I welded with my dad”… they won’t remember that time my dad didn’t hire a plumber.

Things off the top of my head that have been a hit - Planting plants Fashion design Basic coding activities or contests Shooting Anything that requires safety procedures Lawn work (but make it fun or set a timer) Writing a story where they write some of it, you add in silly bits, they write more , repeat till laughing out loud. Both my girls super in to etiquette

Best of luck buddy and squeeze these years for as much as you can.

[landemva]

Yes, time with dad. Get outside and walk or hike. Play in dirt. Explore plants and flowers. Splash in a creek. My daughter really enjoyed the affordable bow&arrow with foam target.

[protonbob]

All this is making me want to have kids sooner.

[Bayko]

You need to get off of Hackernews first sir

[dymk]

Says you. Enough karma and I’ll unlock the HN Dating page.

[sunshinerag]

Whaaat … there is an HN dating page :)

[Flankk]

Yes but the market is kind of poor right now. You'll need to have good numbers to attract any kind of attention.

[protonbob]

I'm already married so no worries.

[MrBlueIncognito]

Get off Hackernews and do what? Next steps please T_T

[praveen9920]

Or just be a kid.

[sharkweek]

There is nothing my oldest (4.5 years old) enjoys more than going down to the creek by our house and exploring.

We’ve learned pretty quick with both kids that spending a lot of money on toys etc resulted in a lot of one-and-done play sessions before they’d quickly lose interest.

As with all things and especially kids… YMMV!

[sircastor]

My wife frequently says to me “this is why I don’t buy my kid toys” as we watch our Son playing with some random bucket or cardboard box around the house.

[aldebran]

I laugh my ass off so many times I see this. The toy is on the side and the box that the toy came in is apparently more fun. That or Costco boxes. They’re sturdy and can fit kids inside them. Lol

[aldebran]

100%

My kids (boys) have probably a couple thousand dollars worth of toys in the house. You know what they enjoy playing with? “Toys” that we’ve made together. Planes, boats etc. the one exception probably is Legos. Legos are cool!

Get legos from garage sales or something and open the doors to endless fun!

[leobg]

Very true. And very counter-intuitive. A cardboard box I turned into a playhouse in like three minutes is still one of my daughter’s favorite play things. The LEGO I bought her, on the other hand, is pretty much collecting dust.

[andrepd]

> I say this to make sure you know your employment status likely only effects your kids if it effects you

That's partially true but there are also things for some hobbies/activities which are really expensive. I'm thinking musical instruments (+lessons), or robotics (okay, those were very expensive when I was a kid but maybe they're cheaper now :p).

[dan-robertson]

When I was a kid I tried to do some robotics thing with my dad which was not terribly expensive (it failed due to the servos not being sufficiently powerful despite matching the spec from the book). But probably had the advantage that he knew about electronics a bit and could deal with the chemicals for etching a circuit board (and could borrow a uv lamp thing or oscilloscope or eprom writer from his employer). But these days you can have circuit boards printed for cheap and often there are ‘maker spaces’ which may have better equipment available (or just skip the PIC and use a raspberry pi).

For an expensive hobby I’d guess anything equestrian rather than music lessons though I don’t really know.

Also the OP doesn’t say they’re actively looking for work so they may be using ‘unemployed’ in the tongue-in-cheek sense of ‘I don’t have a job but I have enough money to live without one for a while and want to spend time with my kid’ rather than one of the more technical senses of ‘not employed and currently actively seeking/wanting/open to employment’, which even still may or may not imply tight financial constraints.

[Akronymus]

> robotics

that takes me back. Using NxC on a Lego NXT. One of the bigger reasons I moved towards programming.

[hpcjoe]

> Best of luck buddy and squeeze these years for as much as you can.

This ... so much ... Just be there. Discover together.

[xattt]

My spouse and I know this with our 5- and 1-year-old.

We have a song that we play to remind ourselves of this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=w8_HsMQ_AQw