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It's been cold enough for long enough now that I swear my house has shrunk to half its normal size. My kids are bickering (incessantly) with each other one minute, running wild the next, and leaving a trail of destruction and chaos in their wake. Also, the "b-word" has reared its ugly head. The b-word, my friends, is likely not what you're thinking – although it's a "naughty" word in our house nonetheless. The b-word is "bored." I loathe that word – almost as much as I long to have enough time to waste becoming it.

A couple years ago, I instituted a 25 cent penalty for each utterance of the word. My kids are young enough that this is quite a serious penalty – so I was happy when it took barely more than a dollar's worth of fines for the word to be eradicated from our vocabulary. Until just recently, with my youngest the offender.

This has been the longest of winters with the strangest of weather for us. Not really enough snow to be fun, often too cold to play outside if there is, and a sloppy mess in between. We've also been plagued by more than our fair share of illness (strep, pink eye, colds, flus, more pink eye…you get the picture), so we've been a bit self-quarantined more than our liking. But in between our contagiousness, we've found a winter boredom buster for the whole, entire family. Yes, the whole 39-year span of us. (Insert triumphant trumpet noises here.)

If you've never been to Passport to Play at your local Y, and you have kids who like to play, and better yet, your kids have parents who like to play – you have to check it out. Not a Y member, you say? Not a problem, I say (and, well, so does the Y, which is the important part). It's full of fun games, sorted by age groups, and changes each week. Anything from red-light, green-light to dodge ball to family basketball. Led by friendly gym-teacher-like instructors, children and parents run and laugh and play. And this time of year, having a wide-open space to run (without being dressed like that kid in the Christmas Story) is a big, fat luxury. Add most definitely, a b-word buster.

Schedule and locations below – hope to see you there!

Mondays
South Shore YMCA, 6:00-7:30pm
Northside YMCA, 6:00-7:30pm

Tuesdays
Parklawn YMCA, 6:00-7:30pm
John C. Cudahy YMCA, 6:00-7:30pm

Thursdays
Tri-County YMCA, 6:00-7:30pm

Fridays
Rite-Hite Family YMCA, 6:00-7:30pm
Southwest YMCA, 6:00-7:30pm
West Suburban YMCA, 6:00-7:30pm