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Original poster

Small children - what do you do at the weekend?

38 replies

YukoandHiro · 20/11/2021 10:02

What do you all do at the weekends when you have small children? I feel like we have really boring weekends.
My husband works nights so misses bedtimes so at the weekend we spend time at home quite a lot. We go to the park, for a walk, the eldest (4) has a club on Saturday morning that DH takes her to. Sometimes we go to kids parties etc. We occasionally see relatives or a friend. I feel like we should do more but by the weekend we both work so we're always tired by Saturday morning and if we haven't already planned something well ahead of time then we never really feel like doing anything. But I worry that it's boring for the children.
We'd like to eat out with them more but they both have loads of allergies so that's a total nightmare and not at all relaxing tbh. Then again, neither is the constant churn of snacks and food at home....
Tbh while it's lovely to be all together and have DH home, I don't really enjoy our weekends very much and just feel like we should be doing more/making more of life. We did more either together or separately with friends before children.
Can you share what you get up to?

OP posts:

anon51 · 20/11/2021 20:28

We have swim lessons, football training/matches and stage school classes for my DCs from Friday night to Sunday term time. During that time we fit in local parks/farms/zoo/play dates and cinema etc. When it's the school holidays we tend to go on day trips to the beach, national trust with a picnic and amusement parks etc.

SickAndTiredAgain · 20/11/2021 20:42

We are outside a lot, in the park or playground, there is a small wood behind our house that is great as it’s right there so perfect for a quick walk before dinner, or a longer play in the afternoon. We go swimming semi-regularly, tomorrow we’re making mince pies (well I’ll make the pastry, DD (2.5) will help with some rolling out and spooning the mincemeat in). It never seems massively exciting, but DD gets excited by going on the bus so that doesn’t really matter.

donutosaurus · 20/11/2021 20:43

We do pretty much the same. I have a 3 and a 1 year old and I have found having 2 children much harder to navigate than when my oldest was an only child.

I think they require quite different things due to napping and different abilities.

Don't beat yourself up!

We tend to do walks, take the scooters out, pop to the shops, library visit, local farm visit, soft play, swimming, playing in garden, arts and crafts (which I HATE), playing with games and reading books/colouring.

We go out to eat but I often regret it and load them with snacks pre dinner whilst we wait (usually ages) for the food to appear!!

I find weekends a bit boring now but since my oldest dropped her nap we have so much more freedom now and can do pretty much anything!

I reckon it's a case of riding it out until they're a bit older (although they may not then want to do the activities!)

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CourgetteSeason · 20/11/2021 20:51

Lots of national Trust days out - got a membership last year so we're getting out moneys worth.

OnceuponaRainbow18 · 20/11/2021 20:54

We try and do things I don’t feel happy doing with the kids on my own in my non working week days, so swimming, day trips, have membership to local zoo- we go there a lot

Toloveandtowork · 20/11/2021 21:01

It's all so boring for adults with young children 😂

StolenAwayOn55thand3rd · 20/11/2021 21:04

OP your weekends sound great for your kids’ ages. I do think once the 1 year old gets a bit older you will find yourselves naturally juggling more parties, activities etc and then may yearn for the empty weekends of yesteryear!

One thing that has worked really well for us is having one day as a family day when all 5 of us are together and having one day when we split up a bit. It’s happened naturally because of the kids’ activities but it has been very positive as we get to do things a bit more individually suited to the different kids, and one of them gets one on one time with a parent which they can direct completely.

Roarsomemore · 20/11/2021 21:30

BlankTimes idea re i-spy books is good. What age group are they for?
Mostly quiet weekends as other posts. We sometimes go to town for errands then get food in a cafe. They see that as a treat

plantastic · 20/11/2021 22:25

We used to sort of split the weekend into chunks when ours were little little (still quite young at 5 and 8 but not tiny).

Saturday morning was my alone time- usually a long run and then allotment or seeing a friend or catching up with something. I think mainly the kids played at home or in the garden. DH played football on Saturday afternoons and I either used to go to the park or a trampolining drop in and then a craft session at the library. Sometimes used to meet DP after football in the local pub with some of the other families for a pint and chips.

Then Sunday would be a family day and we would usually go into central London to a museum or an event (most of the big museums have regular family events at the weekend) or head to some outside space on bikes - e.g. a country park. In the summer look out for music and other festivals on in the parks. If we hadn't come up with anything a Sunday afternoon swim was a good bet but I used to take the kids swimming on my day off in the day (and later, after school). DH usually used to do soft play on his day off.

I found this way we all got some time to do what we wanted as well and didn't need to be glued together. Also found eating out really stressful so we did packed lunches. Even having to wait in a queue at a cafe is not relaxing with smalls. I was saying to dh the other day that we are only just at the stage where a friday-sunday weekend away seems viable, partly because they can go to bed later but also because we don't now have to cart mounds of stuff with us.

I also used to plan ahead and get some stuff like kids theatre in the diary because it's always sold out if you don't- maybe that would give some regular 'different' stuff to look forward to?

Taswama · 20/11/2021 22:36

Lots of trips to the park. Visits to grandparents to visit a different park (or leave kids for a few hours).
Swimming
Walks, bike rides in summer months (kids on bike seats).

Crumblinginside · 20/11/2021 23:01

Mine have swimming lessons.
Also the odd party.
Last Saturday I took them to town for a look around the shops. Visit grandparents sometimes. Usually with dh on a Sunday.
Church.
Local market in summer. Football

becarefulouttheretoday · 22/11/2021 10:35

When mine were small we would always get annual passes from somewhere as a Christmas present so a zoo farm, a safari park, a soft play place.

It meant we always had somewhere to go that wouldn't cost anything and in winter when it was too cold for the farm we could at least take the kids to the soft play bit of the farm and have a coffee while they played.

solania · 22/11/2021 10:40

DH is a vicar so weekends are work days for him. On Saturdays we all go out to a weekly family cafe at church, in the afternoon we sometimes see my parents or occasionally a friend or two, on Sunday DH is at church and DS and I will usually go to the main service and if not then we have a zoom call with my aunts and cousins. Then Sunday afternoon either more church for DH, or we all have a quiet afternoon at home. We are quite boring people though and like spending quiet time doing puzzles or crafts.

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