What do you do in the evenings?

[SnoopyLovesYou]

What do all of you lone parents spend your evenings doing when kids gone to bed?

Starting to feel like I'll be able to start doing relaxing things in evenings and need ideas :-)

I knit/sew/crochet and watch crappy telly or waste the night away on the computer given the chance, but the older the dcs get the less time I seem to get!!! Love it when I get a good hour or two with my knitting needles though.

I crochet, watch series on Netflix, read and do housework.

I sleep and latch hook

I'm not a lone parent but am alone every evening of the week as DP works. I watch crap TV, write a journal toy 2 DDs, bit of cleaning, and sleep! :)

There is not much evening to speak of i.e. my son is now 8 and although he usually is in his room by 8 pm he does not switch his light off until 9 pm and I can get interrupted until easily that time.

I have got in the habit of going to bed shortly after him and getting up at 5 am to have a small bit of the morning to myself i.e. 2 hours before he gets up - I have gone a bit eccentric through having been a single parent since Joshua was 5 months old!

I have no idea how I would manage if I attempted to stay up beyond say 10 pm I have hardly done this for years now I would find it a real struggle small wonder I have no social life and I remain forever single!

I have like a list of craft stuff to try and books I want to read. In reality I'm always so tired I just slump in front of crap TV instead haha!

i cross stitch! and give my self a headache all the things i enjoy doing reading cross stitching playing on the laptop and watching tv are really bad for me because of my eye condition so i go to bed early a lot, have a bf now though so he keeps me company some nights

Sounds like needlework is alive and well!

At the moment I am trying to read more and watch some good films... Sometimes I have a nice bath... Housework of course :-(

Anybody else got any good ones?

I knit, sew and crochet- a theme is developing here I see. I actually make all the gifts I give now everything from handbag charms through to handbags. Current project is single bed blanket for my niece who will be 10 soon and baby blanket needs retiring. So I am making lovely colourful grown up blanket that will be Christmas and birthday present.

Oh wow a lovely knitted blanket. What kind of wool do you use?

Come on- there must be some of you who don't do any needlework... (I really like needlework by the way.)

Some of you must have friends (including male friends- exciting!) around to play Cluedo or Monopoly or poker or host amazing crêpe parties or pamper yourselves by painting each toenail a different colour? ;-)

I like to think that I knit, draw or make stuff in the evenings. In reality I flake out during bedtime stories only to surface, shellshocked, at 11pm in the knowledge that I still have washing up, next days packed lunches and washing to do. Which I do then bugger off to bed in a foul temper because I have wasted another evening.

Or I come on here ...

Harriet that's almost exactly what I do too but ok put it this way... In an ideal world where there's no stress and we are highly organised, what would we do with our evenings?

If I could manage one or two nights a week where I actually do something fun, relaxing etc, I think it would really keep stress at bay.

Ah now, in an ideal world I would have the children in bed and asleep by 9, all household tasks already done, and I would knit something that didn't end up as a huge knot. Or I would make funky clothes and bags, which I can do but only with a few pester-free hours.

Or (on a roll now) I would crack on with mending the mountain of small stuff that needs repairing, probably in front of a really good film.

Anything that gives me some sense of achievement, really.

Yes I like feeling a sense of achievement too. Sometimes though I feel like I'm missing out on a social life! Not that I particularly want a social life but some nice company the occasional evening would be good!

How do you all socialise? Invite friends over w kids or when kids in bed? Or get a babysitter? Go out to friends houses? On the town?

Another one here who spends them slumped in front of the tv, apart from the 2 evenings I work. Once a week
I'll force myself to do some ironing, but that's really about it.
I would love to do something worthwhile/creative, but I'm just so tired all the time!

Hmm... I have a friend who's a single mother. Lets call her Lara. She doesn't give a crap. The evenings are 'her time' and her place is a mess but she seems fulfilled because she spends her evenings doing creative stuff. When I do interesting stuff in the evenings, I'm sometimes overstimulated and can't sleep! Then it's true I do pay for it the next day!

So... seems like nobody here has a social life? Maybe as the kids get older?

I live in Derbyshire and everybody bar me as relatives and exes nearby who sit for their children free so that enables the single parents to have funds to go out and enjoy their life beyond working and essential housework etc. It is so unfair that I just don't have this and I have tried several times over the years to get women to do childcare swaps in the evenings but they do not need to do this as they have their mums around the corner (I used to live in London and have no surviving close family on the planet) and although I currently know a teenager who is willing to sit for my 8 year old boy at £2 an hour evenings or weekends I can really find the £6 or £8 required to get out and have some social life. The ex is 100 miles away and only sees our son halfterms and school holidays so it is simply not enough regular access to arrange a life beyond my son and work and essential tasks. I just feel I live a mere existence and have nothing to look forward to as I am always strapped for cash! Like I said earlier the evenings to myself are out the window as 9 pm I just tend to go straight to bed or stay up latest until 10 p.m. Perhaps one day soon I will be able to afford the teenager rates and live my life better!

I have a cheap babysitter too at £4 an hour but to be honest by the time I've got the place cleanish, kids in bed, me dressed, I'm quite stressed and tired already!

Anybody conduct a cool social life at home to save babysitting fees?

I'm the same - no parents so only nights off I get are when they go to their dad's, by which time I'm so tired I just flake out. Would like to go out more but all my friends are loved up and have babies etc and getting a night we can all do together takes about three months. Sometimes if I have a day I will go to the beach or go out somewhere for the day but it feels more lonely to be out than be at home IYSWIM! I might get a social life one day when the kids are a bit bigger (I hope)!

Its kinda sad isn't it?

I think the key for me is NEW friends haha!

Well... I'd better get reading all these books! ;-)

Mmmm well apart from knitting to while away the last few weeks of maternity leave before I popped, it's something I don't have time for (sadly)! Was surprisingly good fun when I did it though :0)

As for evenings- I generally cook for friends who come over when she's in bed. Going out is ok as my dad steps in but more often than not I just can't be bothered (crazy eh!)
I have one other single parent friend who's local so I often go over put baby to bed and stay so we can have wine :0)

I sometimes feel I should be more productive but generally quite happy to chill in front of tv but nice to have different evenings too with friends etc.

Oh! Someone with a social life! What time do your kids go to bed RB? So you give your DC their dinner and then have your own with your friends who come over?