If you have toddlers/preschoolers, tell me about your weekend

[Cakeandslippers]

I have a 2yo and 3.5yo, I work 4dpw and we normally do something nice on my day off but I'm just wondering what people do at at the weekend?

It's me, dh and the kids at the weekend and I feel like everyone I know is busy every weekend but we very rarely have plans. Sometimes it's nice, we go to the park or the woods, very occasionally swimming (not easy to access at the moment where i am) but a lot of the time i find it all all quite boring. Am I imagining that everyone else has lovely weekends full of things to do and meeting up with people etc or is social media feeding me a lie? I don't want to spend all weekend cleaning and tidying but I'm not sure what else there is to do.

We aren't struggling financially but don't have loads of spare cash for fancy days out. Pre kids we used to go walking, cycling tail running etc most weekends and then might eat out. Not yet found a way to manage those things with the kids yet.

I think perhaps the lack of response answers my question for me 🤣

I have an almost 2 year old and a 5 year old.
Yesterday the 5 year old went to his Saturday morning sports club while DP stayed home with little one and put the washing in. Home for lunch, then an afternoon of playdough, toys, then dinner, bath and bed. I went to work at 6pm.
Today we’ve been to the park this morning, home for lunch, toddler is down for a nap, I’m gonna have a shower, DP is snoozing, 5yo is staring at the telly. Then off to another park with my mum and then I’m off to work at 6pm. Pretty standard weekend for us.

Have a 3 YP. It’s been his first 4 full days at nursery this week so we have stayed in the house all weekend for the first time in a long time because he was very tired and we were all a bit under the weather!

We’ve painted, made rice crispie cakes, he’s ‘helped’ sorting out some bits from the loft, we have watched far too much CBeebies.

All ready to start again tomorrow!

1 and 3yo plus older ones. Weekend is usually spent with me meeting friends or family/going for walks/going to the park/going shopping with most of the kids in tow. Very rarely have proper plans just text friends last minute. Older kid and husband go out separately to an activity.

Sundays see family with children, husband sometimes too.

And washing. I do lots of cleaning/washing/maintenance stuff. This is mainly what I do on weekends.

My holidays felt very flat compared to social media.

I could have written your post…my DC are similar age. We do the same sorts of things. I constantly feel a bit bored and then guilty like I’m not doing enough. I often have to remind myself that a day at home just dipping in and out of things together is a nice way to spend a day. I try to think about the days I loved as a child and most of them centre around being at home.

I'm a lone parent.
Playdate, swimming, then a local church fete thing yesterday.
Visited auntie this morning, now watching TV and going for coffee with a friend later.
Chores, and a bit of playing at home in between.
Quite a typical weekend for us.

My older 2 and 7 and almost 5 and I have spent this weekend dreaming about the preschool days 😍
We were in the habit of a lovely woodland walk (take a bag to collect treasures) and they didn’t whinge!! They bloody do now! Other regular weekend stuff: local RHS garden, swimming, playing in the garden, board games, TV time, Lego fest. It’s family time for most folks so didn’t often meet up with friends as they’re all busy with their families. Baking? Playground? Locally there’s music in the park in the summer months, maybe you have local events on.

Yesterday we went to the local splash park at the beach, flew DS kite, visited my grandparents, played in the garden with his rollercoaster and ball pit and cardboard boxes,
Ds went for a haircut and I took him along to the park on his balance bike.

We have a 9month old too. Yes weeke d days are busy! Luckily D's went down at 7pk last night which is blooming unheard of. Today he is poorly so we are having a much much quieter day.

Mine has just started school, but this time last year a typical weekend looked like:
Saturday morning ballet lesson
Sunday morning go swimming
Usually a birthday party or playdate on one of the afternoons
A national trust property, park or bike ride / long walk on the other afternoon, or somewhere like the library or afternoon in the house if it’s raining
See my parents for Sunday tea

Ds is 3 forgot to say!
Last Saturday we went to softplay and went to visit my parents too.

Mine are the exact same age as yours. DH works 2-3 weekends a month. I don’t have them in any organised activities because I hate being tied down. I guess that will change when they’re older.

One weekend a month we tend to be away somewhere (either staying with family for a family event or night away in a hotel etc).

The other weekends then typically look like this:
Saturday - breakfast or coffee/cake out, trip to playground/park/ walk in woods. Home for lunch, nap for 2yo / tv for 3yo. Then something kind of routine and boring because I feel it’s good for them to not have the entire day revolve around their needs - so food shopping or picking up things in town, or cleaning out the shed etc. And time in the garden - swings, sand, etc.

Sunday - lazy morning with baking or arts and crafts. Lunch (if DH is off, we might eat out) and nap/tv time. Visit to family or friends. Bath and bed.

I think the pace suits us all. They can get very cranky and out of routine / disrupted sleep if we do long days out.

We are very routine focused with ours, who are 3 and 4.

Saturdays - are DHs lie in day so we tend to do baking in the morning, then go out as a family, zoo, soft play, farm etc. the odd play date as well for good measure

Sundays - are my lie in day, DH takes the kids to church and to the park on the way back home. We then usually see family and friends on Sunday afternoons and have a meal out for dinner

Once a month we visit my mum and her husband (live on the coast) and we tend to drive down on the Friday evening, DH and I stay at a hotel for Friday and Sat nights but spend the days together

Have kept the same routine since they were really little and works well for us

I think it might just be the social media best bits that make you think everybody has a jam packed weekend.

I have an almost 4 y/o DD and 1.5 y/o DS. Normal weekend for us:
Saturday morning 9-10ish - DD goes to gymnastics and DH/DS go get the click and collect food shop. Play in the garden and lunch followed by DS nap. In the afternoon we might go for a walk (either local canal, woods or we have a NT membership) or take our library books back.

Sunday morning: we try go out somewhere on Sunday AM whether that’s swimming (we only really manage it financially once a month), another walk with a picnic and playground. Then I tend to take DC to my mums in the afternoon so she gets her fill of them whilst DH is doing DIY or just having some down time.

Thanks everyone! Good to know it's not just me. I think part of what I find hard is that my dh would never organise or suggest anything, he is great with the kids and will play with them all weekend but he prefers to stay at home or maybe go to the park (I went to the park almost daily for a year over covid / mat leave so the fun of it really wore off for me!). That means anything we do has to be planned by me and he's resistant to things that he thinks are hard work e.g. anything we need to drive to or where it goes over a meal time etc. The other thing is that we don't have much family local and very few of our friends have kids and so we never really have anyone to see, I think that might be a big part of it on reflection.

I have taken some good ideas from these posts for future weeks so thank you! I was also thinking of putting my eldest on the waiting list for swimming lessons when they turn 4 (very soon) so if we're lucky we might get into this in the next year or so which will be a nice bit of structure to add to the weekend.

I have a 2 and a 4 year old. I take them to their swimming lesson one morning. After than we usually play at home until lunch. In the afternoon I

Take them out for a walk. On Sunday the same, or every 2nd or 3rd Sunday we see family. Not too exciting but I don't mind.

At that age we always did 4 things, so 2 morning and 2 afternoon with naps in-between.
Soft play, swimming, visiting family, parties, trip to the park, kids activity classes, going out for something to eat, meeting with friends etc.
I'd find staying home torturous all weekend, and we all thrive on structure.

I also hate staying at home all weekend! It's hard as we don't really have any friends to hang out with (unless we ditch the kids which kind of defeats the point) and going out to soft play etc has become so expensive.

I'm glad to know it's not just me who doesn't enjoy being home all weekend with kids, neither of mine have napped for over year a now so we're without a break and I can't deal with the fighting! Husband doesn't seem to mind but I'd like to find things we can do together that we all enjoy. God few ideas here.

Thanks, when you say a walk, where do you go. I think my problem is we used to be avid walkers and do long hikes and I struggle doing a short lap of the park at 2yo pace 🤣

Hmmm I tried to reply on my last two posts but it seemed to not work, never mind, appreciate all the input!

Can you get bike seats or a tag a long for the kids bike?

Almost 2 year old and 4 year old here. 4 year old has football and gymnastics on Saturday mornings and DH works so the toddler has to come along for the ride. Nap time for toddler (1-3pm) is when 4 year old watches tv and DH and I get a rest! We usually just play at home in the afternoon/I do jobs. Sundays is our only full day together as a family. Sometimes we see friends or plan a day trip but often it’s just park or playing at home.

DC2 was born in lockdown so like you I am well and truly sick of parks but luckily DH is still into it! It’s annoying to me that DH works on Saturdays because it means that I rarely get time to myself - I always feel like we should do stuff together on Sundaysbut should perhaps make more exceptions to that.

I'd also recommend carving out a few hours each over the weekend, for work or pleasure.
DH would take the dc softplay on a Saturday morning for me to clean, iron etc. Then one of each would have an evening out together friends most weekends with the other staying home. Or one would plonk the kids infornt of a film whilst the other went for a run etc.
You don't all need to be together all weekend.

We have an almost 3 year old and a newborn. Weekends are usually early family dog walk, then a mix of seeing family / friends and local days and afternoons out at a farm / at the beach etc

I never do soft play or park at weekends as they’re always too busy but MIL looks after toddler a day in the week so that’s their activity

We always do adult focused stuff (ie things we’d want to do) and make sure there is stuff for toddler to keep her entertained- all our friends have kids the same age so bbqs or meet ups are really easy as they all play together.

We are fortunate to have a cleaner and husband loves housework so we do laundry during nap time so it doesn’t eat in to time otherwise.

Sat BF the newborn while toddler sleeps right now!

We have a balance bike for the toddler but friends also use scooters - have you tried either of those?