Family life after Sunday football

[Downinsplendour]

DS 13 has decided to give up his spot in a club football team. I’m partly relieved at having our Sundays back but partly sad as he was a decent player but in a mediocre team with coaches that did not really develop him (not their fault - they were volunteers and I’m grateful for their time to date and feel for them).

DS has school sport on Saturdays when he plays for his A and B teams so it is tricky finding a flexible club that will let him wriggle out of Saturday training whereas school is adamant that anything under a very elite level must come second!

The question is, what do we do with our Sunday mornings to early afternoons now?! We have a DD aged 10 too and live in London but can nip out to Kent etc easily.

We have done nearly all London museums. Had a National Trust membership when the DC were younger so have done everywhere within a two hour radius. I would like to do something fun as a family and take up a hobby or project that gets us out of the house. Don’t mind driving to the countryside but don’t want to have to come up with a new event every weekend that we can get out of.

Not sure why but I feel guilt and a bit of remorse at DS leaving the club - yet both he and DH insist it’s for the best. I feel like this every time they quit a hobby. Not sure why! Maybe because I didn’t have any extra curricular opportunities growing up.

Homework
Housework
Shopping
Swimming
Church
Seeing friends (as a family or the dc seeing their friends, or adults seeing theirs)
Bit of just downtime to relax / not do a lot
Gardening
DIY
Admin stuff
Hobbies
Local (or slightly further afield) walks

I would like to do something fun as a family and take up a hobby or project that gets us out of the house. Don’t mind driving to the countryside but don’t want to have to come up with a new event every weekend that we can get out of.

Would that mean your ds will never have a full day at home? School M-F, sport on Saturday, formerly also on Sunday — and now potentially a family hobby on Sundays instead. I know everyone is different but for my two, this would have been an overscheduled life.

Would he not benefit from some respite from commitments, a bit of downtime built into the week? It could still be a family day.

Thanks @NewName24 for the very sensible suggestions. I want it to maybe have one organised thing we all look forward to otherwise if we are all off doing our own chores, inevitably the DC will somehow engineer screen time. I look back at my boring childhood and want to avoid repeating it!

Good point @AllTipAndNoIceberg but do any older children have a full day at home? I guess we have one or two years tops before the DC don’t want to hang out with us as a family and am trying to think of things we can do together. I fear unless we get out of the house, it’s just too easy to retreat to screens.

Surely you haven’t done everything in London? There are constantly new things coming up - maybe get Time Out and make a list of all the things you even semi like the sound of and go and do them, even ones you wouldn’t automatically think you might like.
My similar aged sons have a similar life (Saturday sport and a busy week) and when we have free Sundays we do things like kayaking, the beach, bush walks, art galleries, go for lunch, hire a boat, go whale watching, go fishing, see a show, try a new cuisine, visit a new area in our city, see friends, play tennis together, play pickleball etc. We are in Sydney but none of these things (bar maybe the beach) are Sydney specific.
Enjoy the time together before he pulls away and does his own thing at weekends!