Social Isolation Survival Guide for Single Parents

Share article

How do you cope as a single parent during long periods of isolation? We asked the Frolo community for their tips for surviving isolation and loneliness as a single parent.

young child cooking

If you’re finding yourself home alone a lot with the kids since becoming a single parent and your pool of ideas is starting to run dry, fear not. We asked frolos to chip in their favourite ways to keep kids entertained at home and they really delivered. Read on for inspiration galore – and make sure you check out our Feeling A Bit Lonely group chat on the Frolo app if you're ever feeling alone and needing connection.

Also, remember that screen time is fine. And screen time when you’re struggling to cope is definitely fine.

Resources for kids

Ideas for entertaining young kids

  • Read together – raid local charity shops for some reasonably-priced new reads (if they’re still open)
  • Audiobooks – Audible have made 100s of children books available for free
  • Mud kitchen
  • Obstacle course around the garden
  • Face painting
  • Scavenger hunt around the house
  • Hide and seek
  • Hoard your recycling -cardboard boxes, toilet roll tubes etc – for crafts
  • Wendy Macnaughton is doing a drawing class for kids of all ages every day at 5pm on Instagram Live
  • The floor is lava (a classic)
  • Exercise – Joe Wicks is running a Youtube PE lesson every weekday at 9am
  • You can find more kid-friendly workouts here
  • Create your own comic book together
  • Disco bath! Turn the lights off and add music and glow sticks for bath time with a twist
  • Have regular Facetime appointments with grandparents, family and friends you can’t see for a little while
  • Calming breathing exercises
  • This is a list of 40 indoor activities for toddlers
  • If you have a printer you can print all sorts of colouring pictures, puzzles, and mazes here
  • GoNoodle videos help kids decompress by combining mindfulness and movement
  • Fischy Music use songs to nurture wellbeing in children
single parent doing yoga at home with a child

Ideas for entertaining older kids

  • Board games – organise a swap with friends if you’ve played all of yours many times
  • Jigsaw puzzles
  • Library books – lots of libraries offer free ebooks that can be read on a tablet
  • Audiobooks are great for otherwise reluctant readers and Audible have made 100s of children’ titles available for free
  • Paint portraits of each other
  • Write one line of a story each – keep passing it around until someone writes “the end”
  • Teach them how to cook – you might even get nights off making dinner into the bargain
  • Exercising together – keeping things moving will improve everybody’s mood
  • Whiteboard games – hangman, noughts and crosses, and Pictionary
  • Baking – you could branch out into vegan baking if there’s a shortage of eggs in the supermarket near you
  • Spring cleaning (this one might take a bit of persuading!)
  • A research project on a subject close to their heart
  • Sudoku books
  • Find a podcast to listen to together on a subject they’re interested in
  • Organise loose photos into albums – Snapfish will send you 50 free prints per month if you pay postage
  • Declutter and get a charity shop donation box prepped

Keep kids’ brains engaged with our list of educational resources for home learning

Resources for parents

We’ll be adding to this list regularly. If you spot a great resource – tag us on the app

Frolo Premium offerings across Community and Dating modes are now available to give you an even better Frolo experience!
Frolo Community Premium comes with additional features that include enhanced discovery settings, seeing who has been active recently, accessing premium Expert Meetups for free, accessing personalised
Group Chats, plus the ability to post anonymously on the Feed.
Frolo Dating premium makes it easier to find your person by seeing who has been active recently, getting unlimited access to likes and matches, as well as access to advanced filter settings. Check out Frolo Dating mode.

Subscribe to the Frolo Podcast to hear our expert guests discussing topics that all single parents care about.

Frolo app