How much do you do with dc on the weekends. Feel we're in a rut

[etta0]

We don't live near family and have very few friends. So we have no social events to go to on weekends, apart from the occasional dc birthday party.

I have become tired of being the energiser and organising things to do on the weekend. I'm also tired as I work full time. Dh isn't the best at organising things either. We also don't have the money spare to be doing much that is interesting. Ds4 is also in a difficult phase and can be unsafe in public, running off and also tantrumming and so its unpleasant to take him anywhere anyway.

So we tend to stay at home. They play and watch TV and we might pop out to the park sometimes.

I worry it's a little boring for the older dc, although they never complain.

How much do those of you with primary aged dc go out on the weekend? And those with no friends or family what do you do to keep interested in doing things just as a small family unit together?

My DS8 sails every weekend the weather allows (waves @BiddyPop) and has swim training.

We usually have a potter in town, he does his prep and has some gaming time. He plays out with his street-rat friends if they are about.

I second NT membership. If you pay monthly it's only 10quid or so and great for having safe places to tire out young kids where the odd bolt can be managed safely.

converse if that was for me I appreciate the ideas. However, most of that stuff we can't do due to DS2's autism. He has gross & fine motor skills difficulties & struggles with turn-taking & concentration e.g. he can't sit through a film at home (cinema is different as he is entranced by the whole experience, lights, sound etc).

We do do some baking, crafts etc but it's hard work. We do lots of exploring when I have the car, but living in a village when you have no money, especially on a Sunday, is not conducive to exploring.

I love a day at home at the weekend but dd(8) gets serious cabin fever!

Ds (12) has football every Sunday so that takes up a large chunk of the day then we have Sunday dinner together.

Saturdays usually homework in mornings and then we try and get out and do something in afternoon like museum / park / beach / cinema / trampoline / bowling.

In summer we do less away from home because dd plays with her friends in street / each other’s gardens and ds meets his friends to play football.

We were lucky to live in rural Scotland but within easy reach of 3 cities, so there were more weekend options than we could ever fully explore, from beaches, hills, castles, forests, lochs, museums, gardens, swimming pools, theatres, cinemas, ice rinks, bowling alleys, soft play, zoos, wildlife parks, tennis courts, historic sailing ships, etc etc, and if we were at home indoors then we had board games like Monopoly and Cluedo, cards, jigsaws, painting, crafts, baking and so on. My kids and I all adored reading, so we got 18 books a week out of the library.
When the Edinburgh festival was on, we’d go and see all the street performers for free, then pay for a children’s show.
My own childhood was just playing in the street or park, so I wanted my kids to have a more interesting time!

We spend most weekends at our local David Lloyd. About 3 to 4 hours on each day. There's something to do for everyone.

Just have one dd -9 with some special needs. Sat morning she does a dancing and singing class and in the afternoon we might go shopping/museums/cinema or potter about at home.
Sundays are busier as she goes on a trail ride (horse) at a country park some weeks so have lunch out there. Alternatively church or a day out somewhere eg zoo next week.
She has 3 after school activities so is quite heavily committed during the week. We do bake and cook together as she loves it, play games, or do some craft on nights she doesn’t have anything.
She’s learning the clarinet and the ukulele so practicing these takes some time out of each day.
Good to see what others do and get some new ideas!

We do swimming and riding lessons of Sat morning, and we always have a pizza and board games night on a Sun. Between those we often see friends or family, or go somewhere. I love getting out and about!

etta0 you and your dh sound like me and mine. I grew up going out a lot and dh stayed in a lot. He doesn’t see the need to go out whereas I get a bit irritable.
I want my dcs to have an upbringing more like mine so I just take them out by myself if need be.
It’s just better if we do anyway as I’m happier and so are the dcs.

PoppingBubbles I make up hot food,we have this large round tub that keeps food really hot or really cold for hours(we bought it from Amazon and it is amazing)it's usually something different each time so one time it might be Hotdogs and wedges,so I'll have the cooked sausages in one tub,the wedges in another,fried onions in another and one tub of beans(if the DC want them)and another tub of coleslaw and the hotdog rolls.

I have a list of hot picnics I've made so far
Hot dogs,wedges,coleslaw and beans.
Burgers,rustic wedges(that's what my DC call them)beans,corn on the cob and toppings for the burgers.
Pasta bolognese and ciabatta.
Chicken curry,rice and naan breads.
A Roast Chicken dinner(that was the most elaborate one(we have merlin passes and had gone to a theme park in the winter and our 5DC asked for some real food)with all the trimmings.
Morrocan meatballs,cous cous and balsamic glazed chicken drumsticks.
Chicken supreme,veggie rice and french stick.

Apart from the roast dinner the hot picnics usually take me about 20 minutes to make so the same amount of time that a regular cold picnic would take me to make.

Sometimes when we go out for the day to a themepark we'll eat at one of the restaurants at lunch time but I'll have hot food I've made for on the way home(because it can take a couple of hours to get home so we may not get into gone 8 at night),either hotdogs,burgers or large sausage rolls so we then don't have to worry about starting dinner when we get in because they'll have had breakfast at home,a large meal at lunchtime at the themepark and then the snack tea in the car on the way home.

I sometimes feel guilty that we don't do more at weekends. They don't do a huge amount of after school clubs either. Just music lesson and scouts/cubs.
But I think we would struggle with too much structure. I just love lazy weekend mornings, make a nice breakfast and hang out.
We do family walks, see family, sometimes go out for lunch, occasionally something different like cinema or museum.

Ok so this thread inspired us to go on a long walk yesterday with the dc on scooters and we got some chips for a lazy picnic half way through. Beautiful day.

I think we will keep trying to make an effort for at least one day out of the weekend. I think we'll go swimming next weekend. It has been a long time since we've done that.

God, we don't do most of this stuff on a week-to-week basis.

DD is 9. We purposefully don't have any planned activities for the weekend, we like to keep them free to do anything or nothing! We sometimes visit my mum, might go for a walk in the countryside (we're in the city), but a lot of time we're just pottering about at home - DH and ! both work full time so lots of house stuff has to happen. DD will play in the garden on her climbing frame, watch TV/iPad, we are playing a lot of card and board games at the mo. We all read a lot so lunchtimes extend into just staying sat at the table reading. Got to the supermarket. DH sometimes takes DD to the park but she seems a bit old for that now.

We'll do more when the weather improves and the days are longer. But weekends are for chilling as much as haring about the place! I would hate to have some of the weekends described on this thread!

6 and 9 here. We do a dog walk on the beach or nat trust next door. We plan craft activities. I invite their friends over. We have weekend traditions like waffles and pancakes. I let them rest though that's the priority.

Dd4 our week end mornings are taken up with dance and swimming then afterwards its a mix of

National trust walks
Wildlife Trust activities/nature reserve
Zoo
Board games
Arts and crafts
Swimming
Relaxing at home with tv
Playing with toys
Baking

Saturday we often have a chilled day. Kids are tired. Husband has sport fixtures so me and the kids have a chilled morning in PJ's and go to NT or somewhere bin the afternoon. Fresh and and a run. Maybe the cinema once in a while.

Sunday's are hockey for both in the morning, then homework etc in the afternoon and they have friends from the village over or could are at their houses whilst I make us a family dinner, iron etc and get Monday ready.

My two are v busy after school in the week so weekends need to be simple in my view. They need down time as much as we do.

We used to do lots over the weekend, but the last few months not much. We've just had one virus after another, and I've tried to do less at a weekend so that we don't get as run down. We still have little outings, but only local and not more than a few hours.

Also been doing more at home with the children. I don't do baking, but we often make ice cream with the ice cream maker, or if I get the stuff in advance a science experiment, or just arts and crafts. My son can spend hours playing with his brio, and daughter will happily join in too.

I think getting out every day is important. Even if it’s just taking the dog for a walk. I’m all for relaxation and not cramming every second of the day with activities. Downtime unstructured is good.

However a whole weekend with nothing just makes you feel a bit like eating a macdonalds hamburger. Nice at the time but feels unhealthy and bleurgh afterwards!