Once your kids are in school, how does your day look?

We live 7 min drive away from school and after school playdates aren't really an issue. Friend usually comes back in the car, back home by 3:45 and they stay til 5:30ish.

Weekend parties are frequent in reception and Y1, depending on the class size, but they drop off after that and you'll only normally get invited to parties of good friends. I wouldn't say play dates really begin in earnest until Y2 at the earliest.

Clubs are a bit hotly contested. I personally think weekend clubs for reception children is too much and weekend should be left free and easy – I don't think so much time needs to be so structured. There's always the exception of course.

My children, who are about to go into Y3, only do weekday clubs – two each – and we keep our weekends free to be spontaneous.

I work full time, so drop offs and pickups are DH or our nanny, so my daily routine wouldn't be helpful to you!

I imagine it won't be much different to your weekends now. Some people are out a lot, some are not. I spend a lot of time out of the house at the weekends, just as I did with preschoolers. I took preschoolers to play groups and mum and baby swimming lessons, when they started school they went to activities. I spent a lot of time at the park and nature walks with preschoolers, that continued when they started school.

I work in a school, so once I've dropped her off at hers I walk to mine, work, walk back and get her, go home, walk dog, make dinner... And repeat!

Free time we visit friends, I have to clean the things I couldn't because I was out at work, etc.

Reception will be endless parties and they will peter out in year 1 and 2.

Realistically, walking distance to primary and, ideally, secondary school will be most important because you and your kids will be doing it twice a day for years.

My perfect dreamhouse is currently for sale but its rural and not the best fit for our family at the moment. I'd love the space, but my children will need to be driven everywhere and they won't be able to walk to school now or with their friends when they are older or just have them pop over after school or have any independence until they can drive.

I think these are important considerations because you'll always be driving or hosting. Primary school saw a lot of us going back to eachothers houses after school, especially in winter.

Do you mean your child’s preferences will change as they get older? What did they used to like doing on weekends and holidays? It’s hard to predict what they might like in the future, but being in a town or city with good public transport so they can meet their friends when they get older might be useful for you if you don’t want to spend all your time as a taxi service! Also town might have a better provision for activities and classes.

I think it completely depends on how sociable your child is and what they like to do in their free time!

So our week generally looks like this. I have one child 11 in secondary school and one 7 in primary. My best friend has two kids in the same two schools too.
Mondays - after school 4:15-5:15 is swimming lessons for both
Tuesday - 5:30 - rugby training for the little one, coaching for the big one till 7:30.
Wednesday - I have rehearsals (I do amdrams) at 7:30.
Thursdays - littlest does Beavers at 5pm-6pm, biggest goes to BMX 5-6:30pn then I go singing at 7-8, biggest goes to scouts 7:30-9pm.
Friday - biggest and daddy do Pokemon club at 6-9. I do Burlesque class 7-9 or have the littlest and we go to cinema club.
Saturday - 9-12 - littlest goes to theatre club
Sunday - 2-5pm - hubby plays D&D, 6-9:30 - I have rehearsals.
Depending on which week it is (show week for example) we might have grandparents and uncles picking the children up because we are both involved in am drama (I’m onstage, DH does backstage)
So we are naturally a very busy family. But we find time to make it work.

6:00- get up and log on fir half an hour,
6:30- wake up dd if she’s not already awake
Go back to my room and get dressed, do my hair and make up
7:00- wake up ds, prompt him to get dressed ,go downstairs start making lunches and get a cup of tea.
7:20ish-kids will be down and I will help them sort breakfast if they need help.
8:05- leave the house and drop Dd along the way to meet her friends and walk to school.
8:20- drop DS at his school and continue to work.
4:30- leave work and collect DS for about 4:45
5:00ish- get home. Dd walks home herself.
then depending on the evening we either have dinner straight away if they have a club or we chill out and have dinner a bit later. Sometimes I go for a walk. Or just rest.
nothing too crazy.

It looked exactly the same whether DS was at school or not -- drop off to childminder or breakfast club, then work, then pick him up from whatever setting. I don't think weekends changed at all whether he was at school or not, tbh, though I think the majority of school starters are really tired for a few months.

I'm a bit puzzled about your question, though -- the only bit of the day that changes is your bit. You will no longer have a child at home with you during the school day. It's up to you how you spend that.

I think it's your decision what you end up doing at the weekend.