It takes a village, right? Luckily, my 13-year-old son is friends with five boys, an inseparable group who live within a few blocks to a few miles of each other. When a snow day is announced, the calls and texts start coming. Parents trade a few hours at one house for a few hours at another. As for screens: A few weeks ago, I made the boys go to Off the Wagon to find a game. They walked together from our house, which is close to downtown. They went to Taco Bell for lunch and came home with Magic Cards. So now on snow days, I tell them they get one hour of screen time. Then they play Magic Cards or Monopoly. It doesn’t always work so easily. But this is our model. All five boys get spread out. No one parent is unduly burdened or unduly left out, for that matter. (I like having kids for snow days. It’s pay-off for my Southern-childhood days when we NEVER got snow days.)

I used the time at home with the kids to catch up on some paperwork and cleaning. Today we are going to learn how to play a new board game and I am going to teach the kids how to make Lasagna!

My kids do better when I limit the TV/Video games to later in the day for short periods of time. They tend to be lazy and argumentative when I let then start their day with that. So today we started with cleaning rooms, reading, homework (emailed by teachers), and some Lego playing.

Sounds like you try to do anything but plant your kids in front of the TV with a movie or video game.

Yes, AND it doesn't always work. It's a battle. The call of the screen is strong, especially as they get older and "everybody" else has cell phones and DSes and laptops. When two or three of us families gets involved, we all have to talk about the screen time thing. It's a constant communication thing.

Hello Kent Patch... As a teacher I love, love, love snowdays!!!! Yesterday really could have been a 2 hour delay. I went out to the grocery store at 11 and to Chick-fil-a to burn off some energy in the playplace. I reluctantly rented the kids a movie on the way home. Now I can tell you lines from Dispicable Me. I got some much needed cuddle time with all 3 kids and I saved a sick day today when I took Eli to the dr for his wheezing. I could care less how many days we have to make up in June. The random lets stay in jammies days are wonderful!!!

Yeah, kids need a day off sometime, too. That's my thinking. And whatever it takes to make it work for them. Of course, I have a flexible work schedule. If I had kids in day care that was closed and I had to work, or I had to work and the kids were too young to stay home, I don't know what I'd do. I do think it's helpful to have an entire community of friend-moms who can help each other in situations like this. Of course, you can't be the only working mom and always expect the stay-homers to pick up the slack. You have to find a way to pay back.

I'm actually a huge fan of snow days myself, but this Tuesday I found myself having to resist the urge to hang out with my boys at home in my PJs because I needed to drive to Michigan for a business trip. So, my husband has been holding down the fort at home 100 percent, which is no small task with 3 boys under the age of 7. He's been creative, though! Reorganizing the toy room and pulling from the "emergency" stash of Christmas toys that had not yet been openend, reading new books, doing some fun exercises in the living room (including a new favorite called Lightsaber Limbo) and, of course, some TV and video games! He even managed to take them all out to dinner and the store on Tuesday night. (Thanks, Superdad!) No matter what you do, I think offering a variety of activities and a change of scenery is the key to battling boredom, even if all you can do is gear up in your snowsuits and get outside for a few minutes. And I couldn't agree with you more, Debra-Lynn, it's so much easier when you have support from friends and family. Even just a quick playdate at a friend's house can be a life-saver on a snow day.