Once your kids are in school, how does your day look?

[Flooloop]

Kid about to start reception in September- next week!!
I will be doing pick up and drop off every day, and imagine we’ll hang out at the playground after school for a bit some days, after school clubs other days.
But what do you do outside of this - weekends and holidays? Will be still be pootling around the village, or is it filled with class parties and weekend clubs? Or will we have lots of free time and we’ll just be at home?
Im trying to work out whether it’s worth investing in a beautiful house where we’ll spend lots of time, or whether we’ll always be out with various things and living nearer the centre of the village / town will make more sense.
Both me and OH WFH so will be in a lot anyway

YABU - there is no free time between school, parties, clubs
YANBU - there’s loads of free time to enjoy being at home

I think it's your decision what you end up doing at the weekend.

It looked exactly the same whether DS was at school or not -- drop off to childminder or breakfast club, then work, then pick him up from whatever setting. I don't think weekends changed at all whether he was at school or not, tbh, though I think the majority of school starters are really tired for a few months.

I'm a bit puzzled about your question, though -- the only bit of the day that changes is your bit. You will no longer have a child at home with you during the school day. It's up to you how you spend that.

6:00- get up and log on fir half an hour,
6:30- wake up dd if she’s not already awake
Go back to my room and get dressed, do my hair and make up
7:00- wake up ds, prompt him to get dressed ,go downstairs start making lunches and get a cup of tea.
7:20ish-kids will be down and I will help them sort breakfast if they need help.
8:05- leave the house and drop Dd along the way to meet her friends and walk to school.
8:20- drop DS at his school and continue to work.
4:30- leave work and collect DS for about 4:45
5:00ish- get home. Dd walks home herself.
then depending on the evening we either have dinner straight away if they have a club or we chill out and have dinner a bit later. Sometimes I go for a walk. Or just rest.
nothing too crazy.

So our week generally looks like this. I have one child 11 in secondary school and one 7 in primary. My best friend has two kids in the same two schools too.
Mondays - after school 4:15-5:15 is swimming lessons for both
Tuesday - 5:30 - rugby training for the little one, coaching for the big one till 7:30.
Wednesday - I have rehearsals (I do amdrams) at 7:30.
Thursdays - littlest does Beavers at 5pm-6pm, biggest goes to BMX 5-6:30pn then I go singing at 7-8, biggest goes to scouts 7:30-9pm.
Friday - biggest and daddy do Pokemon club at 6-9. I do Burlesque class 7-9 or have the littlest and we go to cinema club.
Saturday - 9-12 - littlest goes to theatre club
Sunday - 2-5pm - hubby plays D&D, 6-9:30 - I have rehearsals.
Depending on which week it is (show week for example) we might have grandparents and uncles picking the children up because we are both involved in am drama (I’m onstage, DH does backstage)
So we are naturally a very busy family. But we find time to make it work.

Do you mean your child’s preferences will change as they get older? What did they used to like doing on weekends and holidays? It’s hard to predict what they might like in the future, but being in a town or city with good public transport so they can meet their friends when they get older might be useful for you if you don’t want to spend all your time as a taxi service! Also town might have a better provision for activities and classes.

I think it completely depends on how sociable your child is and what they like to do in their free time!

Reception will be endless parties and they will peter out in year 1 and 2.

Realistically, walking distance to primary and, ideally, secondary school will be most important because you and your kids will be doing it twice a day for years.

My perfect dreamhouse is currently for sale but its rural and not the best fit for our family at the moment. I'd love the space, but my children will need to be driven everywhere and they won't be able to walk to school now or with their friends when they are older or just have them pop over after school or have any independence until they can drive.

I think these are important considerations because you'll always be driving or hosting. Primary school saw a lot of us going back to eachothers houses after school, especially in winter.

I work in a school, so once I've dropped her off at hers I walk to mine, work, walk back and get her, go home, walk dog, make dinner... And repeat!

Free time we visit friends, I have to clean the things I couldn't because I was out at work, etc.

I imagine it won't be much different to your weekends now. Some people are out a lot, some are not. I spend a lot of time out of the house at the weekends, just as I did with preschoolers. I took preschoolers to play groups and mum and baby swimming lessons, when they started school they went to activities. I spent a lot of time at the park and nature walks with preschoolers, that continued when they started school.

Weekend parties are frequent in reception and Y1, depending on the class size, but they drop off after that and you'll only normally get invited to parties of good friends. I wouldn't say play dates really begin in earnest until Y2 at the earliest.

Clubs are a bit hotly contested. I personally think weekend clubs for reception children is too much and weekend should be left free and easy – I don't think so much time needs to be so structured. There's always the exception of course.

My children, who are about to go into Y3, only do weekday clubs – two each – and we keep our weekends free to be spontaneous.

I work full time, so drop offs and pickups are DH or our nanny, so my daily routine wouldn't be helpful to you!

This is sort of what I mean - I’m happy to drive down, do pick up and hang out at playground for a while, and yes I see that if we were in the village, going to each others houses after school will be easier. Will be much harder to invite people over after school if we’re even a five min drive away, if friends all walk to school.
Its hard to imagine how all this looks and changes with school

We could easily make the effort to have people over and I like hosting, weekends and holidays would be easier for that. But after school, how much time is there really? And how long does all this last for?

We live 7 min drive away from school and after school playdates aren't really an issue. Friend usually comes back in the car, back home by 3:45 and they stay til 5:30ish.

Thank you - this is helpful. This is the stuff I can’t quite get my head around.
so possibly we would be arranging for the kids to go straight to a friends or for them to come to ours - although I don’t know how that works with car seats!

I like unstructured time too and thinking being in our beautiful home and surroundings will be nicer than a smaller place in the village itself

We would be a five min drive away. So do you find it’s ok being a short drive as opposed to being walking distance? This is possibly the crux of it

DS started doing after school clubs twice a week in junior school (as in school run clubs). He still refuses to do anything that means going home from school and out again.

We insisted he played a sport regularly once he was 9. He chose hockey.

That’s the only change really.

Every family is different. My dc as they got older tended to hang out at mine, I was obviously way too obliging on snacks and dinners! First couple of years of school they were too tired for things after school bar a leisurely stroll home with friends

If I can say this kindly, OP – I think you're overthinking it a bit too much? With car seats, we have spares or the friend's parent gives us their's.

House preferences are highly individual, so I don't know if anyone can help much with that. Yes, obviously being able to walk to school is easier, but you get used to whatever you choose.

As for car seats, there was a place in the school to store them as it was an issue being semi rural. No such thing as extended rear facing then so it was high backed boosters or simple boosters piled up (you had to clearly label)

I have a six year old and love being walking distance to school and the nearby shops, playground and library. It makes popping out so easy, we often bump into friends, and I feel part of the community. Have considered moving a bit further away for a bigger house, but I really value being so close to everything.

We tend to be out a lot at the weekend, most days we'll be out for the main portion of the day. Don't really do play dates much as we both work, and tbh I don't want to look after someone else's child. I guess this might change as they get older and more manageable.

Re: car seats, we gave our friends' child a lift recently and they had a booster seat that he bought with him. Not suitable for reception age, but good enough for a short journey once they're older.

I think it’s one of those things you probably already know about yourself. Are you a super sociable family with loads of NCT )or equivalent) buddies, different friend groups and families you meet up with? Or are you a bit more of a homebody who might do a baby group once a week and have a coffee with a friend a couple of times a month?
What is new is the class parties, which will be 2 hour stretches every 2-4 weeks probably for 1 or 2 years.
We are a really sociable family and weekends are busy but they were before school
Even so I’d get the bigger, more beautiful house, assuming you can jump in the car and be whereever within 20 mins. Much better for hosting!

Walking distance is easier and I think you'd be more likely to have friends over if you walk, but it soundsl Ike you're quite rural anyway?

It also depends massively on your DC. Mine only have a few friends each.

Eventually they even walk themselves.

I’m definitely more of a home person. Have done a few groups, mostly because they’re walking distance at the moment, but I like to be at home, like the kids to have time to play. They like being outside too.
They do love going to the local cafe and playground which we can currently walk to, but I don’t know how long the playground is that interesting to them for?

Currently this is what we can do and I agree that bumping into people all the time is a really nice way to casually socialise when we’re just doing our thing. Although possibly if we were just driving five mins down to the village we’d be seeing people as we walked around it once we were down.

Another consideration is whether you'll always have a car. We only have one and getting it to and from the garage would be a hassle from rural dreamhouse. Do you have good family support or alternative transport? Or is it walkable in a pinch? And do your friends and your kids friends parents drive to come over x

Another consideration is whether you'll always have a car. We only have one and getting it to and from the garage would be a hassle from rural dreamhouse. Do you have good family support or alternative transport? Or is it walkable in a pinch? And do your friends and your kids friends parents drive to come over x

On days I'm at work when kids are at school: I'm at work

Days off : I'll laze about, be generally lazy whilst ignoring my list I created the night before about all the chores I could do.