To really dread weekends?

[frillonit]

Is this normal lol

two little kids (2 and 5) never know what to do with them or how to fill the time. Everywhere is busy and expensive. But if you stay home it’s awful.

Also, Ikea for a day out is verrrry different from Ikea for shopping 😅 If you go there with the mindset that your only plan is to kill some time, and you don't have any agenda or anything to buy, it's a fantastic free day out. Mine will happily spend hours playing house in all the little rooms in the showroom, and just need a little supervision with things like taking shoes off before lying on the beds etc.
And if your closest one is an hour away thats even better - 2 hours killed travelling, and you can time it so the little one has a morning nap in the car.

I know what you mean. There’s so much of TGIF and excitement about the weekend but for me it’s more exhausting and stressful than the working week. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy being with my children but it is full on.

There will come a time when you look forward to them again OP but right now it's just a total slog so I get you.

Do you have a garden? My 2 and 4 year old spend ages playing on their balance bikes and making mud pies. I’m quite relaxed though so I let them play with the hose and watch tv as much as they like. They don’t want to watch it too much they like doing stuff and being in the garden is their favourite. It’s been a lot better since the weathers nice. But I just have lots of wet clothes to deal with so my weekends are often messy but not boring and quite bearable for me. We occasionally go the park but I often just take them to kids parties as there seems to be one every weekend!

I know parenting young kids is exhausting but walking isn’t pointless. Fresh air and exercise are pretty much essentials, going to the park is an essential part of learning (and it’s free!). Even an hour in the park gives kids a good run around and i’d rather get some time out the house/worn out legs than deal with kids that haven’t left the house all day. I think most would agree kids are better at home when they’ve had some time out.

No time out in fresh air is ever pointless with kids.

You don't need to just fill every moment.

For me, weekends are for relaxing, I hate having to plan in something like when we have birthday parties or whatever to go to.

Saturday morning, we go out and meet my sister for coffee in our favourite independent coffee shop, followed by walking home the long way, through the park and into the play park.... Sundays are often church. Apart from that they just play with their toys and I do my gardening or crafting. My youngest is 7 now but this has been my weekend routine since my eldest (now 22) was a baby.

Lego was the transition answer for me - you start with helping to organise the parts into something to be constructed - a few years later you find there is no excited reaction to the "Lego's ready!" call, just some 'easy brick' assistance and then, before you know it, you've completed a couple of big sets pretty much on your own because they're now yours.

I have never been that into walking if I’m honest but with one shooting ahead and one lagging behind it doesn’t feel fun. No intent to be negative, just … well, weekends aren’t any fun for me at the moment.

They won't be with that attitude.

Sorry.

Some fun
Some downtime
Its up to you to make it work.

It is really, really difficult to get any downtime with children of this age; it just is. That’s not to say it will always be the case and in two years I’ll probably have a very different view on things but right now this is where we are.

The thing is, most of us responding know it’s difficult to get downtime with children of that age, because we’ve either had or have children of that age. As I said, I had 3 under 5. You’re responding as though we’re coming from a position where we don’t understand what it’s like. We do!

I had 2 young kids and was a single parent. I couldn’t afford to go to paid activities. Our weekends were things like
Library to choose books (I joined them as soon as they were born!)
Baking
wandering in the woods and making dens
making dens at home in the house
junk model making
playdough, Duplo, fisher price little people toys etc..
jigsaws
lots and lots of books!

Look it wasn’t not exciting and yes it was tiring and repetitive, but I look back and treasure those memories.

Well, I’m not intending to @WhereHasMyPlanetGone but suggestions to walk all day with a two year old or to spend a day playing in ikea do kind of make me wonder!

Well I can only tell you that I have had 3 2 year olds and we did both of those things!
ETA although when my third was 2 we were in lockdown for a large portion of it so a trip to ikea would have been a dream! We did do a lot of walking though.

I’m definitely getting the vibe that people had different two year olds to mine!

I take them swimming on Saturday and if nothing else going on Sunday then a massive hike through fields to spot animal homes and footprints (none of which are real but kids will believe anything).

I do recall from that age that the occasional visit to a big camping shop was a great morning out - mine got into every tent, every chair and every bed and exhausted themselves.

I will say hang in there, this stage passes and now I’m at the other side with teens doing their own thing and a husband who is constantly out of the house doing sports. I’ve got way too much time to myself and no idea how to fill it.

I have 2 kids age 4 1/2 and 18 months.
i absolutely love our weekends when we have plans all together as a 4. I do work half a day on a sat and some Sunday evenings.
we go park, beach, soft play, swimming, this weekend we are all going to a wedding, parties, being inside sometimes is a bit of a drag but even this afternoon we’ve just played with some blocks and done some colouring and got the ball pit out.
both of mine would go on a walk and we do that regularly. Take a pram! Even at 4, if the baby is walking about the 4 year old takes advantage and will have a sit down.
maybe it’s your mind set if you’re feeling down in the dumps as it is x

I lost one of mine in Ikea. Kudos to Ikea - they handled it pretty well. But it was before we all had mobile phones and my DH was downstairs queuing when I decided to go back up for something, with DD, and the security told me to stay where I was while they searched and I couldn’t contact DH to tell him what was happening. I can’t remember how she was found but when we got back downstairs to the tills the security down there stopped us and questioned us, I think they had DD’s description and what she was wearing so I was quite impressed with their efficiency.
I really wouldn’t recommend IKEA as a fun day out with small children!

There is a retail park near us with a GoOutdoors and a Pets at Home and that was a whole morning out with toddlers 😂. Camping followed by the zoo!

Mine are only a little bit older but already so much easier than you describe, hang in there!

Things I have found that entertain them both:

• Lego club, Sat am at local library - older one will play with other kids, younger might join in or bring me books to read
• parks with sandpits - there are a few near me. They will play for ages with sand pit toys, take their shoes off like it’s the beach, essentially stay in one place so I can sit down and watch them rather than be dragged about. Try a google maps search.
• Ditto splash parks / paddling pools
• Movie night: they get involved making posters, setting up rows of chairs/cushions, helping serve snacks etc to make it feel less like telly time. Extra treat (for me) to get in pyjamas first…!
• Cosmic Kids Yoga on YouTube - screen time but also following instructions, movement, etc.
• ask for their input - takes pressure off you! Mine say they want to walk in the woods then get ice cream this weekend. I said done

Also don’t knock it, ikea has a hour’s free crèche from 3yo!!! Not long til you can drop them both off and go and have an apple cake.

good luck op!

DD2 used to love half an hour in M&S shoe department trying on all the shoes with the highest heels and doing a surprisingly good model walk in them (she wouldn’t be seen dead in high heels now😂).
Apologies to anyone who works in M&S shoes for the trail of loose shoes we left. But it was free entertainment and surprisingly enjoyable and funny.

I hate to say it OP and I say it very tongue in cheek but it will get worse before it gets better 🙈 wait til they are at all the clubs like rugby, football, dance etc whatever they want to do and they are older and you are juggling the two of them.....and then school holidays too 😱
Weekends are a slog, I had two on my own from 19months old and a 5 year old was on my own for 4 years I feel you, but I think try to change your mindset a bit and absolutely plan activities in that you enjoy with them....I am a big rollercoaster fan so I used to take them even at 19 months and age 5 to a local theme park I had passes for and we'd spend the day there. Yes its bloody hard work, yes you have to take a bag full of crap, yes your knackered but aren't all parents knackered?! Its also good for children to be bored or doing activities/tasks that they dont necessarily really enjoy all the time.

Oh p.s im a teacher so I dont ever get a break ive either got my own kids or someone else's 😂

I really do understand it is full on at this age.

Habits built at this age do stick though. If they love the park, being outside, scooters, running about, you’re going to have it alot easier as they get older. Im totally one for balance and never beat myself up over kids having some tv or screen time. But I also knew they had plenty of time outdoors. When they are teenagers, being able to take kids out who are happy to go out makes life alot easier (and that is when mental health/screen time really does become an issue if kids aren’t doing other things).

Always had the attitude of getting them out and that made it much easier to do the things at home (having an actual sit down with a coffee aswell as all the other things we need to get done).

You’re in an exhausting stage but it does get easier with every year. Even a walk to the shops, library, anything of interest near you. Tell them some items you need to get, bribe of a cake and ice cream if they can help you find things, have that as a weekend treat. It’s all learning for them.

I've got a kid- like brain I think because I enjoy all of those things! Even taking sneaky goes on the slides at soft play. We do pretty much go out all the time morning until night on weekends and I love it. Staying at home is harder because toddler gets a bit grumpy being cooped up sometimes.

I dread going to work though. Maybe I should become a childminder 🤔