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?

I've recently started taking my one year old to church - there are children's Sunday school groups taking place during the service (they're welcome to join the service if they like though!) and I've met some lovely people! They have lots of toys and he loves it ☺️

I meant to add - we're not particularly religious (you don't have to be, everyone is welcome) but we really enjoy this.

I have a 3 and a 1yo and a teenager. Saturdays they all have dance classes, then I take the little ones swimming (my mum helps!). Theyre tired after swimming so always chill after - garden, crafts, toys, tv etc. Every other Sunday we do a family day out with my older daughter (if she can be persuaded) such as trip into town, farm, nice park further out, walk somewhere or visit cousins. Then the alternate Sunday the little ones see their dad, sometimes I spend that time with my teenager but today I'll go out with them because shes got friends staying over and won't want me around, either trying to clean around them or worse, trying to talk to her friends!

Nothing wrong with a bit of TV at all but mine would be absolutely climbing the walls inside all day and I'd find it really stressful. We do a pj/TV day maybe once a month and it's never as relaxing as I expect it to be

Thanks so much everyone, it's good to hear what others do. We don't do classes at the weekend because they do that during the week.

I think I struggle a bit with my dh needing to rest so much. Any outings need to be planned in advance (which he doesn't really like to do) or I do them by myself. I think I will have to just do stuff by myself! It's tricky because I feel like I'm leaving him out if I make plans without him, but I think I need to do it.

The really useful info has been how people make sure they get a bit of 'time off' at the weekend too, half a day each etc and balance everyone spending quality time together.

How do you get time for yourself?

Definitely go by yourself with your dcs. It's not fair on you or them that you have to stay at home because your dh isn't up to going out.
I get time to myself by going out and leaving the dcs at home with dh or asking dh to take them out for a bit to the park or to visit family.
At home, they would watch tv or play. As they grow older, you'll get more time to yourself.

I get time to myself because my DH has the kids one morning. We personally have a until 11am rule. So one morning I am I. Charge until 11am and the other my DH. It’s entirely up to you what you do. I tend to sleep until 8am, read, have a bath and then meet a friend for coffee. OH just sleeps!
This is just what works for us and has been the result of lots of conversations.

We often go on family trips out in the afternoon.

Classes on Sat mornings have always been our key. Gets you put of the house, kids burn some energy while you take it relatively easy, so by lunchtime our energy levels are better matched. I don't worry about them being too bored because they have had that stimulation in the morning.

Mine are teens now but I still run them round to activities on a Sat morning, and have a lie in some Sundays.

We tend to get out for a couple of hours each day - walks, parks, soft play, see family/friends, bike ride, cinema, trampoling. It breaks it up for kids and gets them out of house /exercising. In the house there is a bit of telly/phone/device time but not continuous. We do baking, crafts, garden, board games with them( sometimes both of us or one parent while other does jobs)
But also they read, play with trains:/lego etc on their own.

We get a lay in each. We generally go out together unless one of us has stuff to do. Dh works full time and I work part time but I have kids when not working so weekends are a fairly even split in terms of time with kids/jobs/rest.

At that age Saturday morning would mean swimming and a stop at the library for a new book (and a book read there if it wasn't too busy). Once in a while we added a stop for coffee. Sometimes we all went, sometimes just one of us. When no swimming was on we went to a park and playground.

DD still napped a lot and even after that we introduced quite time after lunch, she could listen to story tapes, chat with her teddies, read, listen to music for a while. It meant we had a chance to have a quite cup of tea as well.

Afternoon meant baking, board games, bit of TV, playing or meeting friends.

We often went out on Sundays with a picnic, we are NT members and there is a lot of places in short distance so we often drove a bit and walked. We are also near London so took the train (we both had annual train tickets, so no additional costs) and did a museum or attraction. One year we had Merlin passes as a Christmas gift to us and went several times to Chessington.

My husband worked 50-60 hours a week, not physically tiring but he was managing partner of a large law firm (350 lawyers, 350 staff), so stressful.
But being with his kids on the weekend was his priority, especially as he didn't see them much during the week. Our weekend routine was he went swimming at 7am, then come back and after breakfast go back with the kids for a couple hours. After that is was lunch and sport on tv - kids would play or I might take them out to the playground. Sunday we usually had my parents for lunch, and we'd either go for a walk in the park after. If not having my parents we might go for a drive to a country pub.
I'm not sure why a 'rest' has to mean staying inside. If there's a play park near you you just sit and watch the kids - hardly physically taxing.
The odd day inside is fine, but I'd still be planning some activity (finger painting for example) that would engage them.

Saturday is DH's lie-in day so I get up with DDs (age 5 and 3.) Sunday is his turn to get up with DDs so I either lie in, go to the gym or have a long bubble bath. He has an extremely stressful job but he still gets up with the DC and gives me a break one day at the weekend, I think there's no excuse not to nomatter how tired he is.

We always, always get out of the house. It could be a bigger day out, running errands or just a trip to the park but sitting inside all day would send the DDs stir crazy. Today's been a quiet day as an example and there's been loads of TV time (hours) but we went for a walk this morning (just 30 mins in the local area) and have played in the garden this afternoon.