Does anyone have weekends like this anymore?

My sister posted on Instagram yesterday. It was about her trip to see the London lights and Selfridges. Looked stunning but crowded. No “personal” photos, just views. The reality is - our other sister has died leaving a teenager. She took him along with her children but kept that part private. So she was “documenting” her day (she has a creative/media career too) but not too personally. People close to her know how the weekend went, others just see impersonal images.

Apologies if someone else has asked you this already but what show did you see in London please ?

It's a normal weekend? My parents never took me anywhere but admittedly we didn't have all these fun things to do for the families that we have here now. It's a big money making business and I'm afraid it spoils our children who then grow up expecting constant entertainment (and the money to spend on it).

@Ranoutofideasfortheelves

the only thing I can think is that there wasn’t much time for you Op to do what you want. Whether that be go to a gym class action or go for a drink with your mate. Same for husband. A weekend doesn’t need to be family time the full two days and nights.

Why don’t more do it though? She has school all week, dance mid week one night, plays with friends or playground spring/summer nights, but winter we just take dog out and then in for dinner. Everyone seems to do so much

They're just choosing to spend their time differently doing more active stuff. Whereas you're choosing to spend your time writing overly descriptive prose about your humble but painfully wholesome weekend in a transparent effort to garner validation.

But thankfully this is still Mumsnet not Netmums. Be grateful it's not 2011 OP as you'd have been verbally mauled so much worse than this.

My weekend went like this: Friday night- school Christmas fair, spent volunteering on a stall for the good of the PTA. Saturday morning husband did the food shop, oldest stayed home to do homework and I took youngest to the Christmas tree festival in a local church, more for me than for them. Free entry and within 5 minutes they were bored but I got at least 30 minutes out of it with the help of some mince pies. Entirety of Saturday afternoon spent watching oldest train doing her sport of choice, like out of the house for almost 4.5 hours. Yesterday I had panto tickets, husband is not into panto, so just me and the kids. Almost jogged through town from the car park to the theatre, it was 11am start and we left later than intended and the traffic was rubbish on the drive over. Did arrive before it started and the panto was fun, it's a win. We did have a nice late lunch afterwards and then browsed shops for an hour in the rain. I was trying to buy a few bits for Christmas, but having both kids present made it somewhat challenging. Then home to coerce the oldest child to finish any remaining homework. I am sure in instagram all this would have looked entirely different. Honestly I would have quite liked an afternoon on the sofa with some Christmas films, sounds very chill.

But if you genuinely are scraping by, trying to make the best of what you have, why the unnecessary level of detail making your post sound like the latest John Lewis Christmas ad?

Some of us would kill for a weekend like this. I'm working more or less straight through my weekends at the moment, desperately trying to hold onto my job so I can pay my mortgage.

I'm incredibly envious of people who have time to spend with their kids. I can live with people being happy with their weekends and celebrating them. But the "oh woe look at me, snuggling up with my lovely family drinking hot chocolate and watching Home Alone, what am I doing wrong?" just seemed almost like it was designed to elicit posts saying "you're fine".

I'm probably over-sensitive, but it came across as smug and tone deaf.

I have older kids now but they remember the nice weekends at home just pottering around watching xmas movies and doing up the tree more than they remember any of the ridiculously expensive santa 'experiences' I have paid for over the years. If I could go back in time to the parent going wild looking for matching pjs and doing xmas eve boxes etc I would slap myself because they got more joy on christmas eve making a bowl of 'reindeer food' and throwing it around the garden than spending hours with loads of other people doing the same christmas things. For me I genuinely thought I was doing it for them but I realise now it was possibly just for show all truth be told. I no longer post on social media and no longer need the validation I once did so I have grown with the kids in that respect. Nobody is a perfect parent.

A bit strange to assume that "more don't do it". It's a pretty typical weekend plan for people with young children.

Photos of typical weekends at home don't often make it to Instagram, while pictures of Disneyland trips almost certainly will, and tend to get bumped higher in your algorithm. Not sure what's difficult to understand about that.

I detect a tiny bit of reverse snobbery here, but it might just be that you don't know how Instagram works.

I smell humble brag!

You sound rather smug to me and have posted purely for validation and praise.

I'm jealous OP. I'd love a weekend like that, but ours always seems to go wrong if we don't have a plan as such. Three kids ages 7,5 and 6 months. If we tried to do the amount of home activities you did in one day over the whole weekend we'd fail and everyone would be shouting and miserable!

I find it much easier to get everyone up and out the house and there is less tidying too! I would love a weekend like you described.

Agreed.

Absolutely. Completely cringeworthy, describing the most ordinary type of weekend with an obvious attempt at rose-tinting all of it.

We go out a lot most weekends but we don't post on SM. My dcs and I enjoy trips out (we live in London so it's easy to go) and it's affordable for us. DCs have swimming lessons, dance class, this weekend we went to a Christmas concert and a West End play. It feels busy at times but we all enjoyed the activities and it was nice to have that social experience. It's only 15 mins on the tube to get home so plenty of time to play with toys and chill at home too.

It’s 6 of 1 isn’t it? Some weekends are slower, some shopping, goofing around, playing at home/play dates. Some weekends are bigger affairs.

This weekend we did some Christmas shopping, popped to local Christmas markets, did some painting and cooking at home, saw grandparents, put the tree up, etc… next weekend we’re going to centre parcs! It doesn’t have to be full on every weekend, a balance is lovely.

Fascinating how differently people are reading this. So many reassuring OP that she's doing OK. I must be a horrible cynic as I read it as the smuggest, most self-congratulatory stuff imaginable! I see I'm not totally alone though.

I really wouldn't bother looking at / thinking about what other people are doing as long as you're happy with what you're doing. We're not doing any particular Xmas outings this year and had a similar weekend to yours - we had a great weekend!

Oh my days, your weekend sounds heavenly.
Next time I will bring the snacks! 😆 🍿 🍫
@Ranoutofideasfortheelves

You know instagram isn’t real right? People, even “normal” people like your day to day friends, take pictures of things and spread the posts over multiple days or weekends. I follow someone I used to work with, she complained about her DH constantly, they are always (or were so I assume still are) super tight for money but if you believe her instagram they’re living the idyllic family life. When you pay attention you see that this weeks post is clearly from 3 weeks agos post, just extra pictures.

Your weekend sounds great but people post about those all the time too and how amazing it all is. As long as you’re happy…do you.

I'm sure the OP did all of that too, just isn't sharing it cause it isn't as #blessed as her version. Unless they all go to work/school in unwashed clothes, their kitchen is currently still ankle deep in roast and chilli remnants etc.

I'm surprised no-one has commented on screen time yet, maybe it is different when the fire is lit? 🤔

Most do. Yet more faux naivete.