Extra-curricular at weekends - do you keep one day free of activities?

He isn’t wrong to want to do this and clearly it’s important to him on quite a deep level. You don’t get that family time back again…

If the session is 7pm or later then I think a longer day trip can easily be accommodated, especially with a good start. But if evening means 5pm then that is taking a chunk out of the day.

Personally I think it’s pretty important to keep one day purely for rest and unstructured time, especially once homework really kicks in. We do one extra-curricular activity in the week, but it’s pretty low key.

I have been on Mumsnet for quite a long time and noticed quite a few posts about competitive swimming having a negative impact on family life, due to the early starts and high training demands. People whose DC eventually drop it don’t seem to regret that decision!

I like to keep at least one a day at the weekend free for family activities. I don't like my kids in structured organised activities both days they are not in school. I feel like it's important for them to free play, be with friends, relax. Easy for me as I'm a single parent so I don't have to negotiate with anyone.

No. Not sure why your DH thinks it’s not normal to do activities at weekends. In my world it’s not normal not to do activities at weekends.

My DD is a dancer. We don’t have regular lessons on Saturdays (although she has in the past, but Saturday lessons are more for younger kids and she’s 16) but we do on Sundays. Competitions, rehearsals, performances etc could be on any weekend day.

If your DD is at a squad, I guess she's serious about her swimming and wants to achieve some results? By age 11, pretty much everyone who is serious about sport, music or drama has to sacrifice some time at the weekends.

Personally, I'd love to have one day free just for reading/doodling/watching movies/recharging but it doesn't happen irl.

If Sundays are now Swimming... what about Saturdays.

Between them in Winter, my DDs have something 6 days a week. Now Rugby season has finished, Sundays will be canoeing, camping etc.

We long ago accepted that you have to go with the flow for extra curricular... the days change when they move up groups, more training, more competitions etc.

And then, in a few years... they will be adults.

We tried for a while but it just isn’t practical anymore unless we quit. My daughter has competition dance so competitions happen whenever they happen. My son had football on Saturdays but now it’s Sundays and he has taekwando competitions and gradings on random
days too. My daughter could join a ballet company with every Sunday rehearsals but we aren’t quite ready for that level of commitment yet (and she’d miss loads for competitions too)

No. We have Sunday morning free and after 3pm, but I let them do the activities they want and that means we have stuff across the weekend.

Ideally this is what we try and do so have a lot of extra curricular activities in the week, which makes weeks a juggling act with work for both of us as well.
We’ve found as they’re getting older that competitions, shows and other events are on the weekend. Then there are sleepovers and parties. I don’t want them to miss anything so we do it and the most of the weekends the best we can

We keep one weekend day free but it’s because DH works away so doesn’t see us Monday to Friday. So kids have Saturday activities and we have Sunday as family time.

I don’t know anybody else who does that though, lots of families have activities on both days.

At 11 I think it’s her choice tbh. He can have long days out with her in the holidays, she’s only going to resent it if he makes her stop an activity she’s enjoying to do long days out in term time (especially if he then doesn’t stick to that plan!)

DS5 does sports on both Saturday and Sunday AM.
His choice - he was adamant about it and loves it. It means he gets to blow off all his pent up energy, see his pals there, and we're done by 10/11am and can do any family plans, birthday party invites, relax afterwards etc.
School homework always gets done Saturday after sports (but after a small snack and relax).

I would do what I could to support my DC’s interests. I would consider OK one weekend day to be devoted to a hobby, with occasional extra days at the weekend. Plus, weekday evenings a few days a week.

We try to keep the entire weekend free of activities but that has flexed a bit since DD took up horse riding. She goes once every two weeks on a Saturday morning but it’s not every two weeks, we can move it when needed. I don’t like missing lessons we’ve paid for so keeping weekends free means we can do stuff together, days out, parties, long weekend holidays etc without penalties.
What about Saturdays? Could that be your free day?

We keep Friday evenings and sundays free from regular extra curricular activities. Competitions or the occasional event are fine but won't commit to anything which is regularly on those days.

We don't want the entire week ruled by kids activities. Monday to Thursday evening and five hours Saturday is enough!

One kid doing one thing all day Saturday; one kid on Sunday. Both quite serious about what they do (think grade 8 music / national competitions) and we don’t choose when they are. It’s easier for one of them in the school holidays. Our only rule was that commitments needed to be manageable with just one parent to allow one of us to get away occasionally either with friends, our own sports, or other kids.

I'm sure it depends where you live on how easy it is to manage, but we always made a point of one weekend day with no extra-curriclulars. It changed over the years between Saturday and Sunday, but we always had one. It helped me enormously to have one day when we just didn't need to work to someone else's timetable, and gave us flexibility for family activities and seeing family friends.

No, we never kept one weekend day free. We started off doing so but when dd & ds developed particular talents it became necessary. Youth theatre/am dram for example often rehearse on Sundays.