12 Mummy & Daughter Dates – Besides the Playground

I’m not sure if there is a parenting task I try to avoid more than taking my children to the playground.

I don’t know why it makes me want to poke my eyes out, but I start to feel a little less bad when I look around and see the same pained expression on all the other parents pushing their children on the swings.

When it’s my turn to take the kids to give Craig time to do work, I go to great lengths to avoid the park and save myself from death by boredom.

Selfish maybe, but it means we get to have the coolest Mummy Daughter dates ever.

Here’s what we get up to:

1. Fruit picking

Find me a berry farm and the girls and I are picking the ingredients for our smoothie and sugar-free chocolate desserts.

I love how they are moving from paddock to mouth. Obesity levels are rising because we are have far too many degrees of separation from our food sources.

And of course to counteract that value of that last health-conscious sentence we often stop at the cafe for a berry treat.

Turners Beach Berry Patch, Tasmania
Turners Beach Berry Patch, Tasmania

Fruit Picking experiences

2. Going all proper at a High Tea

We actually allowed Daddy to come on this date at the Langham Hotel in Melbourne. I don’t think he was going to let us gorge ourselves on towers of sweets without him.

This was the happiest day of the girls life, and we certainly paid for it later when the sugar rush hit. We only went because it was themed based on the movie FROZEN, which we saw on a date a few days previously.

High tea ta the Langham Hotei in Melbourne
High tea at the Langham Hotei in Melbourne

3. Learning about farming at Churchill Island Farm

Churchill Island is a heritage farm on Phillip Island in Victoria.

I enjoyed Kalyra’s enthusiasm as she wandered through the old homestead asking so many questions. Savannah cracked me up when she asked if the small room was her house (she gets confused with our constant moving!)

Both of them loved watching the farm shows: cow milking, sheep shearing, whip cracking and sheep dog mustering. This was a fun Mummy Daughter date.

Churchill Island Farm
Churchill Island Farm

4. Soaking at the hot springs

Now tell me you don’t want to escape the playground now. Best idea ever Mums! And guess who had to drag who out of there 4 hours later? The girls did not want to leave.

The Peninsula Hot Springs on the Mornington Peninsula replaced the High Tea as being the best date ever. Kalyra even braved doing the cold water plunge with me after the hot spas to get our lymphatic system popping.

I recommend getting there before 10am so you can check out the spa on top of the hill. The Gully area, where this is, becomes adults only after 10.

Peninsula Hot Springs
Peninsula Hot Springs

5. Chillaxing at the Movies

Are you a secret fan of kids movies like I am? I’m lining up with each new release. We just love hanging out with a bag of popcorn and a Disney princess.

6. Kid-friendly Yoga

I was overjoyed to meet Tara Lynch on the Bellarine Peninsula. She runs weekly yoga lessons and welcomes children to attend. During the summer months she does them on the river front at Barwon Heads. We just missed it, but thoroughly enjoyed doing it in the community hall.

Kalyra lasted the entire hour and kept whispering, “This is so much fun Mummy.” When it came time for relaxation, she held my hand and I swooned. How wonderful to have a daughter. We’ll be doing girly things like this together for the rest of our lives. I got a little teary with that one.

Tara gave Kalyra a sheet with yoga moves on it and she does them every morning now. I’m overjoyed that she’s learning ways to honour her body and spirit at such a young age.

kid friendly yoga Bellarine

7. Koala gazing in the wild

Well sort of. It’s a conservation area, but it’s still their wild home. Savannah became chief koala spotter and was stoked to have a staring competition with this big boy. I swear he moved first.

We also experienced koala spotting during our road trip along the Great Ocean Road.

Koala Conservation centre Phillip Island
A koala bear on a branch
cute

8. Trips to the Markets

Local markets are such an amazing place to explore with your kids. They often have a lot of kid-friendly stuff going on. Like the small community markets at Ocean Grove where Kalyra had a short 10-minute drumming lesson. Her and Savannah now find bins and seats to drum on whenever they can.

Kalyra loves to help me pick out the best fruit and veg and even samples lemongrass and ginger tea with me. Or we hang out with farm animals and get our faces painted like we did at the Prahan Markets in Melbourne.

Or go sampling and juicing at the Salamanca Market in Hobart. We also loved the Bellingen markets and Burleigh Farmers Market.

Markets at Ocean Grove
Markets at Ocean Grove
Salamanca Markets, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Juice time at Salamanca Market

9. Cafe lunches

My mum laughs at how cafe savvy my girls are. When we lived in Raleigh, North Carolina Craig worked on Saturdays so Kalyra and I had an all-day date. We’d start with breakfast at the Bagel cafe together before doing the groceries at Trader Joes.

I started a trend that Kalyra loves to continue, except there are no bagel cafes in Australia. So we go to places that have awesome views like The Dunes at Ocean Grove instead.

Dunes Cafe at Ocean Grove
Dunes Cafe at Ocean Grove

10. Playing in the ocean and beach walks

When the weather and location is right, we head to the beach to build sandcastles and jump over waves.

It’s amazing to see how much Savannah’s confidence has grown on this trip. She’s gone from terrified of the ocean to now rolling around in the white wash.

Hyams Beach, Jervis Bay, Australia
Hyams Beach, Jervis Bay, NSW
Booderee National Park, Jervis Bay, Australia
Booderee National Park, NSW

Read More: 38 best beaches in Australia

11. Attending pantomimes

Kalyra thought the show, The Ship that Never Was, in Strahan Tasmania was one of the funniest things she’d ever seen.

She giggled her head off throughout the performance, she learned a lot about convict history and had a ball participating as a jelly fish and squirting everyone with a water bottle.

Savannah sat riveted throughout the show and happily joined in too. This was a fun one!

The Ship that never was Strahan
Strahan, Tasmania

12. Learning about healthy food

We went to visit Nicole Azzapardi, from Mamma Care, for the morning in Queenscliff, Victoria. After having challenging health issues with her daughter, Nicole set out on a mission to discover medicine through food. Not only did she get her healthy, happy baby back, she discovered a delicious, comforting way of eating and a new found passion – sharing the way to a healthy, happy family through food. She now holds cooking classes and retreats in her beautiful heritage home.

I loved hearing about her journey, getting a sneak peek at her upcoming book and tasting some delicious home cooked food. I love exposing my girls to healthy eating. They enjoyed playing with Nicole’s children while we chatted.

The Alchemy Cookbook

There’s definitely not as many pained faces in our family anymore.

It’s amazing the memories you make and the world you discover when you creep away from the monkey bars and swing sets.

More Family Travel Tips

More Family Travel Posts

You may also like

You may also like

13 thoughts on “12 Mummy & Daughter Dates – Besides the Playground”

  1. I had to laugh when I read the part about poking your eyes out because I feel exactly the same way!! Love your dates 🙂

  2. Oh, I totally agree with you Caz! Going to the playground is one of my least favourite things to do. But taking my boys on a hike, heading to the beach, or exploring a place we’ve never been before? Pure bliss for everyone! 🙂

  3. I also had a couple of mother-daughter trips and they were definitely fun. I enjoyed going for morning walks with my mum. Sometimes, she did get annoyed at my walking too fast and not waiting for her, but overall it was fun. My mum also enjoys traveling like me. Thus, it’s wonderful to tag her along on my trips.

  4. Lovely ideas for mum and daughter times. I have to say that I LOVED playgrounds when my boys were little but having multiple hyperactive boys can do that to you! I went shopping with my daughter yesterday, for clothes, only our third time in her almost 8 years. Both getting into it.

  5. Your list of 12 mummy-daughter dates must have been a total blast with the kids. The kid-friendly Yoga on the Bellarine Peninsula looked quite an interesting experience. I don’t have any daughters but these places in photos should work for my boys too. right?

  6. Playgrounds can certainly be a boredom inducer sometimes and I often avoid them at home. But, please don’t discount them altogether… they are a great place to meet local families while traveling! There’s really no better way to get a peek into the family life of other cultures than at the playground and I find it fascinating how kids play and interact when they don’t speak the same language. Happy travels! I love reading about all your adventures!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

4 Powerful Ways to Travel More & Create Better Memories
Want to know how we've made a lifetime of travel for 25 years? In
This is what gives us incredible memories to share around the campfire. Join our community for insider tips and updates!
Scroll to Top