to need someone to teach me how to parent

[TickingTimeBomb2017]

My DC are 5 and 6 and I still haven't got a clue what to do with them at weekends. When the weekend roles around I feel sick to my stomach with anxiety over how to entertain them. I'm a single parent student so not rich.

I dread weekends :( I know this isn't normal btw so don't jump on me. I'm asking you "normal" people what you do with your children at the weekend. I feel out of my depth.

At that sort of age, I remember enjoying:

• Den building (including tents in the garden using a rope, bedsheet and two trees)
• Making "perfume" in a bucket with water and random flowers / chunks of bush.
• Foot / hand painting the patio with water from a washing up bowl
• Blowing bubbles (better with a giant hoop!)
• Dressing up and roleplaying as knights etc (any interesting second hand clothes can be repurposed as part of a dressing up box - I used to pretend a silvery white jumper was chainmail for example)
• Dipping for small fish in the river / rockpools
• Making radio shows with a toy tape recorder
• Puppet shows
• Treasure hunts / scavenger hunts
• Sports e.g. football, bowling, tennis, crazy golf, skipping. You can get cheap toy equipment for most of this stuff
• Pretending the floor is lava and you have to cross the room or garden without touching the ground
• Statues / Grandmother's footsteps / what's the time Mr Wolf and similar games (better if there are friends visiting)
• Simple origami, e.g. paper planes / boats
• Making shadow puppets with cardboard or our hands in the light of a slide projector (could maybe use a bright lamp in a dark room?)
• Picnics / tea parties in the garden or inside on a picnic blanket
• Making miniature gardens

Some great ideas already. We do most of those things.
Find all the green spaces near you and choose different ones to go to.

Definitely get them out somewhere. Buy a frisbee and ball from a £ shop and head to parks. Take lunches with you.

Get Wellies and raincoats for rainy days so you can still head out.

Look on your council website and see what events they run for kids. Ours does loads.

Find out what activities your library runs.

£ shop is good for arty stuff too.

Just google activities to do with kids and see if any other stuff that appeals to comes up.

if you don't get much luck with mum social, put a message up on the local boards here or on netmums meet a mum section.

Honestly, I think it's a mistake to think that kids need to be entertained during all of their free time.

The six year old might like to laze around reading?(Mine does) I quite intentionally ignore my kids for a while (nicely) and then they have to use their imaginations and come up with something themselves.

I'm quite often heard saying 'I'm the
Mother, not the entertainment.'

You're all clearly much nicer than me though

Saturdays we do swimming lessons/gymnastics. Get home do lunch. This afternoon we've been to the park, sometimes we do walk in the woods/bike ride/beach/play on the garden. If the weather is crummy we might do library or museum (free)/visit to grandparents or just stay in and play/watch tv/play computer games/read/draw/bake. Have tea and then family movie night where we choose get pj's on and have popcorn and a kids film. Sunday we usually have a lazy morning as it's the only day of the week we don't have to be up and out, but sometimes we go to the cheap kids cinema that shows films from a few months back for about £2 a ticket. Rest of the day activities similar to Saturday. What do you do with yor DC on the weekends atm?

Loads of good suggestions but don't forget it's also your weekend. Easy Friday supper and a glass of wine. Let them watch tv for an hour or so while you have a lie in on Saturday. If chores need doing make a deal that they play nicely with toys while you get stuff done or they can even help. Then an activity. Try to find a mum friend who is also alone...many may have husbands who fuck off out have hobbies and work so are also bored. Meeting with someone else at the playground is more fun than going alone.

Saturday evening try to find a movie you could all enjoy with a picnic supper then bed for them and you get some downtime.

Sunday more of the same. They can help with getting stuff sorted for the week and tidying etc. Getting out regularly is key and I completely agree with the pp who suggests routine. Swimming is great because it negates any bath time and if done late pm can involve pjs.

We try and get out. Mine do swimming lessons which take up a couple of hours in saturday.

But in house we sometimes do (I'm a bit lazy so not usual by any means)
Board games
Colouring
Play doh
Painting
Sticking them in bath with lots of bubble

If dh is away then I try to organise a playdate or meet up with a school mum.

(U can sometimes work out if someone else is a single parent in yoir dc class and ask them)

Also like early bird cinema viewings on a Sunday morning as takes up most of the morning

I'm pretty much of the same mind as other pp's. Saturday - get them out in the fresh air - picnics, park, bike rides, walks in the wood and collecting leaves for leaf printing etc. Depending on the age of your children have you tried geocaching?

Sunday - Homework whilst you are doing Sunday roast. Then pm get them to (help you) make something for tea. Do some arts and crafts, early bath, do something as a family, either play board games, film and popcorn night (or if small children free play with their toys, stories, hide and seek etc)

If you have an hour or so with nothing to do throughout the day play ball in the garden or take them to the park/swimming/walk in the woods/beach .....

Your local family centre will probably have a FB page with ideas on including free groups and activities.

They may also run cookery and budgeting courses as well as parenting courses such as Solihull.

Drawing, colouring in, crafty stuff, painting, baking, cooking, park for a 'picnic' with a football or frisbee, movie & PJ day, story day, reading day, messy play - make your own playdough/slime etc, gardening (plant cress or sunflowers in pots), library, museums. So much to do :)

Soft play and parks with swings/climbing frames are guaranteed happiness for my DD6, she generally cannot sit still so anything active is good.

She also enjoys trampolining, indoor rock climbing, swimming and cinema.

Lots of cinemas do cheap Saturday morning deals for kids, think it's like £2 a ticket or something.

She also enjoys stupid things like long bus rides at the front of a double decker or weighing/mixing ingredients for cooking. Playing make believe in her treehouse, practising gymnastics/dancing.

Today we went to the circus, she enjoyed it but was really restless sitting down for so long.

I struggle with finding things for her to do that aren't eye wateringly boring for me. There really isn't much I've discovered yet

Oh just thought of a few more!

Bike riding, play dates with friends - last time I blew bubbles at them and then went crazy in the garden. They've also been to ride donkeys at the seaside and for a trip to a petting zoo. Also crafts - card, bits of ribbon, TONS of glitter glue. Wilkos have loads of knockoff own version kids games - guess who, connect 4, snakes and ladders etc.