Weekend morning routine

[SayMumOneMoreTime]

Please will you tell me what you do at the weekends?

I have a 5 year old and a 2 year old. My husband works a very physical job and is exhausted by the weekend (exhausted all the time actually but needs down time at the weekend). I do the majority of the getting up with the kids during the night and in the morning. At the weekend I put the tv on and they watch it until dad wakes up around 9 when we have breakfast together.

We rarely have plans and often the kids will watch tv most of the day. We have no family nearby to give us a break, so I suppose we are trying to rest by having the tv entertain them.

We have had a really difficult time over the last couple of years and have just about been getting by, but I feel like we're coming out of it now and I want to make positive changes to our lifestyle and routine, particularly at the weekend, so any advice is welcome! What would you do in my situation?

Can you go out just for a walk? Park? What do you have near you ... lots of areas have 'free' things to do even if just a walk by a river, take a picnic and a ball to throw. See what's happening in your local community. I know it's not for everyone but we went to church together, maybe find a family friendly one.

We go to our religious service, then to a soft play. There's a website called Mumbler that might help with ideas of local things for kids.

Morning, try to get them doing something physical in the fresh air and are there any places near you like soft play etc where they can play while you and DH can watch them whilst having a coffee? We have a few places like that locally and they were great.

Afternoon - toys and games that engage them, the 5 year old could do this more independently. Look up toys that they would enjoy so they can entertain themselves.

They can get involved in cooking or preparing meals, chores in a small way.

Don’t feel guilty, it’s not easy!

I have the same age children; DH and I take it in turns getting up with them in the morning. On Saturday we have swimming lessons in the morning then will try to do something in the afternoon like the park if there’s nothing else, swimming or find something local.
on a Sunday we have a lazy morning and sometimes a bubble bath is the activity and I get all the school prep out the way with uniform and hair wash etc to enjoy the afternoon either doing something like baking or drawing or in the garden. Once the kids are dressed the tv might be on for the adults but I encourage them to play although late afternoon they might sit and watch a bit more. If they’re playing happily I don’t tend to instigate an activity, it’s more once they’re getting edgy I’ll suggest play dough or baking.
Weve fallen into a rut in the past of letting them watch tv all day Sunday but for mine it just means by late afternoon they’ve got a lot of energy that needs to be let off

join some sort of local weekend sport activity. Leave DH to sleep in, take kids out to swimming lessons or football or similar. Home for brunch together then family time with tv off after

This is a great question, I am really interested in the answers. We have a 3yr old & a 1 yr old who is not interested in tv and we have been trying different things. We found a woodland trust wood 5 mins walk to our house that I take the dc to sometimes for a “breakfast picnic” (something easy like pain au chocolat & fruit), which is a nice calm start to the day. Also I have 2 storage boxes, each weekend I put some toys (not their favourites) in a box and put it in the garage for a fortnight, then get one out saturday so each weekend they have toys they are excited to play with as they havent seen them for a couple of weeks (being older, yours might not find this so exciting!).
It sounds counter intuitive but meeting up with friends/ acquaintances from play groups etc with kids the same age as yours can feel like a rest if the kids just play together.

Oh also is there a local library? That has been great for us on a Saturday morning.

As PP said, swimming is a fantastic option - this will really tire them out whilst benefitting them immensely.

Definitely get them out of the house. A simple picnic in the park is a lovely thing to do with a nice play area, a ball or take bikes. There must be a local park but you can drive further and discover new parks.

I think it’s ok to have one lazy day, but not two. You should be taking them somewhere on one of the afternoons. Park, swim, shopping, library, out for a ‘coffee’.

I have the same age children. We try to do one family day together and another day we split in half. These are the types of things we do in the house with kids
out and about
swimming, followed by the pool’s soft play while we have a coffee
NT
museum
park, feed the ducks, picnic
scoot and ice creM
library and cafe
Beach/rock pooling
visiting grandparents
trip to supermarket

At home
arts and crafts
books
just playing together
messy play/ mud kitchen, bubbles, garden play
cooking
Chores

I used to live in this garden centre on a sat am with a soft play - so I could drink tea for a couple of hrs and no body else was in 👍 I found that relaxing

Sundays was going out day to a large park or farm - I’d pack a picnic and off at 10 - my husband knew he had to be dressed to go out for 10 ….. he used to get up 9:45 🤪 farm was excellent value as we were in there hours ….

my kids aren’t walkers 🤣🤣🤣 so would always go somewhere and I found them easier out of the house than inside 👍

Kids are older now but at that age, we each had a lie in at the weekend. DC were early risers, on my day i would get up and watch CBeebies for a few hours until dh got up at around 8-9am. Each weekend would involve a trip to the park or somewhere to let off steam, scootering or playing in the garden/ playing games, crafting, baking, library trips, swimming. Anything that would engage or tire them. A couple of hours doing something meant we could then have a few hours downtime

The playpark, feeding the ducks, the library. Bikes are hard (ours are 1 and 5) as can’t keep up with the 5yo if I’m pushing pram. We get outside twice a day. It’s very repetitive! But they get whingey and dreadful if they’re too much indoors.

Always, always a walk or physical exercise - park, local farmers market, soft play, art gallery/museum, playground, cafe. Supermarket if we need to, and usually the one with a playground a few minutes’ walk away.

As early as possible, and definitely out of the house by 9am as it guarantees a nap or down time later in the day. Watching tv I find the morning just escapes, then all of a sudden it’s 11am and we’ve done fuck all.

At that age I took the kids in their PJs (and through a hoody on me) to the play park early doors. Took a coffee with me and let them run wild, then came back for a movie when DH was waking up so we could chat.

We took it in turns though to get up because I needed a break too frankly!

Same ages here.

Today we're having a TV morning til about 9.30, then i'm planning to take them to a local park that has cycle hire. 2yo can go on my bike and 5yo can cycle himself. Back home for lunch then 2yo will nap. 5yo usually does Lego at that point when it won't be trashed by his sister. When she gets up, i'll put them in the garden to play or a Disney film if raining.

Typical weekend for us:

One parent lies in each morning but is usually up before 8:30 and definitely before 9!

Other parent up around 6/6:30 with the kids.

Kids are 7, 4.5 and 10 weeks.

Saturday one parent takes eldest to swimming lesson and the other takes middle child and baby to Stagecoach and waits around there (walk/cafe with podcasts, love it) for an hour and a half as no point coming home.

Sat afternoon crafts, walk, play in garden, telly, play with toys, have a friend over etc. Decluttering, house jobs etc. Sometimes check out local arts centre/theatre. Swimming, parks, skating (roller blades, skateboard, ice skating). Local paddling pool. Things like that.

Sunday much the same as Saturday pm.

Feels nice and varied and full to us.

Every few months DH has a sports event all day on a Saturday.

That’s it really!

My kids are 7 and 9 but we've had a similar routine pretty much since they were similar ages to yours.

DH works on Saturdays. 9YO is autistic.

On Saturday we usually stay in. I do a bit of housework, iron uniforms, and have a bit of a rest after working all week. I let the kids do what they want (within reason). They usually watch a bit of telly, do some gaming, do some drawing and when it's dry play out in the back garden. Sometimes the kids play out in the street if their friends knock for them. We do sometimes go to see my parents on a Saturday afternoon and have dinner there. But nothing much more than that.

I mentioned 9YO is autistic because I've found that he needs that time to decompress a bit after being out at school all week.

On Sunday's, we usually try and have a family day out. Today we're going to the cinema. We might do something like bowling, crazy golf or taking the kids swimming then going for something to eat. If we don't want to spend money, things like the library or a museum are good. Or we will go somewhere for a walk. We have lots of nature park type places within an hours drive, so we will take a picnic and get out for the day.

It definitely helps to have to it planned/booked in advance. This also helps 9YO who likes to always know what's happening. DH and I also make sure we do the chores and jobs on other days of the week so we don't need to spend the weekend 'catching up'. DH uses one of his days off in the week when the kids are in school to do the rest of the housework. We get an online food shop delivered usually on Saturday.

We go to junior Parkrun on a Sunday morning. It's free and a lot of parks run one. It lets the 5 year old run off her energy and the two year old can run along behind or my 2 year old just walks round in the other direction with DH.

Mine are older than your’s 10 & 7. This weekend has been busy. But Sat we had an event at eldest school, youngest had swimming. Then I took the DC to a friend’s house. DH did some housework. Then very rare we had a babysitter and DH and I went out!

Sunday we’ll see family and then get school work done, kids will have iPad time and play with their toys. We might go for a coffee/walk in the afternoon.

If you’re trying to reduce screen time I would really recommend getting a yoto player.

We have a “no TV until 5pm” rule in our house. It tends to go on to keep them entertained while I make dinner and almost always after a jam packed day with lots of time outside getting exercise.

My kids are similar ages and we now have clubs at 9am on Saturday, DH does one and I do the other. Then we are up and ready, we can meet for breakfast afterwards etc, or train into local city, go to the park or even just go to the supermarket and decide what to buy for dinner/ bake cookies etc. We used to be like you and laze around, but doing this was actually more tiring. Also my kids are better out and occupied! I found that ‘relaxing’ at home was never actually relaxing with young DC.

Out most Saturdays or Sundays if the weather wasn't too good on a Saturday.

Once in a while, we organise a big day out like a zoo, aquarium, museumor castle but generally, it was to the park, local woods, country park, nearest beach or farm.
We take a ball, frisbee, picnic mat and food.

In your situation, I'd start researching all the local places that you could start going to, have a chat with dh and set up a plan for the next couple of months.
If he's genuinely exhausted sometimes, take the dcs by yourself, even if it's just for a couple of hours.

By split the day I mean we each have half a day with the kids and half a day not responsible for the kids.