Does anyone have weekends like this anymore?

[Ranoutofideasfortheelves]

Friday night, got in, made chilli and nachos, fire on, throws on, pjs on, dh, me, dd (7) and ddog on the sofa watching films
Saturday, Dd did colouring in the morning, had pancakes, then her friend came to play, then she went to theirs for a few hours. I watched xmas films and sewed a top, Dh messed about on his computer.
I made lasagna and Dd came home, we had a dance to Christmas music then watched Home alone and bed.
Today we took ddog out to the woods, dd did clay, we made chocolate Christmas tree biscuits and played with her elves, played in the garden on the trampoline with the elves, had a roast, bath, fire, stories & bed.

Just been looking at Instagram etc and so many posts of visits to cities, girls nights out, santa spectacular shows, Lapland, London visits etc and just feeling a bit 😬
We will do a few Christmas outings for sure, but don’t seem half as busy (or wealthy)as lots of people. I remember lots of weekends as a kid being slow, but I was perfectly happy. We definitely do a lot more with Dd than I did as a kid, but do most of you do these kind of outings most weekends? Is Dd missing out?

It wasn’t colouring the whole morning, other bits of things scrap books, tv, ipad, garden, a mix mainly

Well let me put it this way. Did you put your cosy night in on instagram? Did you fee the need to take and post pictures of the fire and jammies and sofa cuddles

Probably not, right? I’d say it’s a orettt normal night for most and subsequently don’t go on the grid. Of course people are going to post their holidays and city breaks and general adventures more. If your only idea of what people are getting up to is checking their instagram I would say you’re going to wildly out of touch with an average Friday night.

Sounds like my normal weekends to be honest (minus the husband as I’m mid divorce). This weekend we did have a more social one as there happened to be 3 Christmas events on we wanted to do. Two were in the village and for charity, the other was our local excellent santa experience (and it’s cheap). Next weekend we have a local (inexpensive) panto. But last weekend was like yours. That’s definitely our normal.

Normally we do lots of crafts, play, films and baking. DD is 6.

Unless people are posting what they do every single weekend I think you'll find that they just put the exciting stuff on Instagram. We had a weekend like that last weekend where we were quite low key. This weekend we were super busy and more high octane!
Sometimes it just goes like that.

I am trying not to overload DC at this time of year BUT sometimes I'd just rather be doing something interesting than going to the park again in the pissing rain! I'm not saying you have to spend loads of money (we couldn't justify lapland uk) but I'm also keen to see friends and go places!

How old are they?

I think this is a stealth boast tbh. My kids don't have the attention span for family films and fight all day if we spend all weekend at home, so we leave the house to save our sanity. If we had well behaved children who didn't destroy the house and our sanity we would stay in more and do quaint things like baking and movies more for sure. But I work 6 days a week and have to catch up on housework/laundry/shopping on weekends too so not much relaxing goes on when we are at home.

Fit so much in? But we didn’t do anything 😅

My DC are grown up now but when they were younger we liked to get out and about each weekend. Normally one big day out and then a more local half day out such as go to a park or the cinema and we’d eat out a couple of times too.
We had Merlin passes, NT membership and were members of various castles and other places.

I guess people have fomo and feel they 'should' be doing all that? Or maybe they just don't post about the chilled weekends? Your weekend sounds wonderful, I always feel I'm giving my kids (and myself) the best life when we have days like those.

Pretty much all my weekends are like this and have been for years.

I don’t go out much at the weekends, me and the teenage dds don’t go to concerts, gigs, nights out, weekends away anymore.

DD 3 15 is so anxiety driven (asd/adhd) that the only place she will go is school, and sometimes into town with a safe friend, we literally cannot go anywhere else, its a fight to get her to go anywhere Dd 2 is more sociable and will go on nights out with friends.

i can’t leave dd3 overnight or by herself for more than a few hours so I tend to stay in at the weekends too. It’s nice in a way, I cook, read, knit or crochet and watch films or crap telly and I totally relax.

I do feel like I’m missing out when I see fb posts though of friends with amazing dhs and amazing social lives though and then it makes me sad

This weekend kids had friends round Friday night for food/games & a movie.
Saturday morning youngest has dance classes and eldest did a bit of Christmas shopping with my days, afternoon they were decorating boxes for their dad’s Christmas presents and then we did a family jigsaw. Today we’ve been food shopping, done some jobs round the house, visited 2 hour meet Santa/elves and ride a steam train thing with my parents, brother/SIL and nephews then watched Klaus with a takeaway.
Last weekend and next weekend it’s all stuff at home with a local walk.
We have a lot on through the week so find we have more fun at weekends if we do a limited amount and build in lots of chill time.

I think another aspect is doing things like Lapland UK or what we did in London yesterday aren't cheap. But we booked in April, so that's not a whole month of big spends. The money was spent months ago. I don't think many people are blowing all that money in Dec. We normally stay at a Travelodge in Dec for Christmas markets ( booked cheaper in the spring again). But we didn't get round to booking this year, so we drove to Bath for a day. 12 hours out of the house and on the road was fun, cheap, and exhausting. So it's also good and bad. Nice pictures on FB, but I crawled into bed. House still filthy. I don't post that on FB 🤣

Errrrr sounds like a stealth boast, you sound like an Instagram post but like youre trying not to show off but yet you are.
Of course we all have weekends like yours. 😊

Just saying it's easy to have a laid back wholesome weekend when you only have to try and meet the needs of one child. So enjoy your peaceful weekends and don't overthink it.

Why don’t more do it though?

What an odd question. Why - because they don’t want to, they enjoy doing other things, they stay in most weekends but decide to go all out in December. It’s not difficult to understand. You know different people have different wants, needs, priorities, etc.

What an incredible weekend you’ve had I’d adore those weekends more than any other x x

Sounds beautiful to me and similar to what we do on the weekends my daughter has no club, although after club we come home to cuddle up, eat amd watch movies.
Today I ventured over to my parents for dinner amd more lounging. No-one would catch us 'making memories' in this wet, cold weather.

Sounds lovely. I had a busy Friday and will have a busy Monday so I did absolutely sod all this weekend.

My weekend:
I wfh mostly. Friend came over Friday afternoon. Jumped in car with me to school run. Kids had Christmas fair at school. Back home. Made dinner for everyone. Friend went home. 9pm I had a work meeting with someone in USA. Eldest put himself and other kids to bed while i did it.

Saturday. Up, took son to football until 1030. Lidl on way home for snacks. Spotted those boxes of fruit. Bought 4, one for me, one for mum, one for my gran, one for my aunt. Home. Picked up other children. Went to library around 1pm. Then visited said elder women in family to drop off fruit and veg boxes, one hour each, Home. Kids played board game and read, I cooked dinner. Ate. Bed. Oh, watched Aitch leave the jungle!

Sunday. Up. Son football, then church. Done by 12 noon. Met gran and aunt at my mum's house. Lunch, chats, watched Kingdom on iplayer catch up. Then home, pick up kids stuff for an activity 5 to 7pm. Home. Dinner. More jungle on TV. Bed.

Can't get more boring than that. Wonderful and cheap, just what I need right now!!!

I live in Zone 2 in London.
Friday night: chilled and watched some Xmas cartoons (Mog’s Christmas, One Snowy night) with my son.
Saturday: went to the Christmas fair at the school where I work
Today: son did drawing and colouring in the morning, played with his megabloks, played with his little dinosaurs, went out about 4 to splash in the puddles and look at the Christmas lights on the terraces around the corner.

Next week to be fair we are going to meet Father Christmas in Covent Garden. But just so you know, even those of us who live in big cities have weekends like yours. Everybody needs downtime.

Imo lots of people do weekends like that. They are just not the ones that end up on social media.

We have done the 'event' years with christmas light trails and christmas theme park visits, Hamleys santa etc. After you have done them once then really you have kind of done it and experienced it. No need to go back again. This year we are having a much quieter and homely christmas build up and it's just as lovely.
Your weekend sounds great. We had some years with soare cash or free tickets to things but this year it's a bit more squeezed and I actually can't be bothered with it all.

Not necessarily, depends on the child and the situation, it’s not always easier with one child and you weren’t just saying, you were trying to be nasty. Be grateful to have more than one child, your life may be what someone else longs for.

Sounds standard and normal, unlike Insta stories which are mainly bollocks.

Sounds a lovely weekend. Don't sweat.