What do you do in the evenings/weekends? Or how to improve your quality of life....

[lunavix]

Quite frankly I'm sick of staring at the TV every evening, and waking up on the weekend and looking at dh and we're stumped for what to do.

Our quality of life does seem impaired because of this. What do you do in the evenings? Every evening? And what do you do on the weekends?

We wake up generally at 7.30 (we both seem to need a lot of sleep) then dh races to work for 8, and I speedily dress ds and myself for 8. We both work till 5, when dinner is generaly on the table. 6 o clock and simpsons is put on, then hollyoaks, then dh has a bath with ds (and I tidy away) then a bit more tv and ds goes to bed at 8 (don't get me wrong we play with ds then, but the tv is on, and it's just toys not major activities.)
Then it's tv on for the rest of the night. One of us is generally using the PC at the same time (dh for uni work, or me for our accounts/MN) or two nights a week I'm cleaning the house.

Dh is starting to play football wednesday evenings soon (and unknown to him I intend to take ds every week - will get us out the house!!!) In september I'll be doing a course one evening a week hopefully.

But that's it. And it's the same on the weekends, we spend saturday shopping which we can't afford, and sundays at the PILs. We have occassionally gone to the park or for a picnic, but there isn't a lot around here to do. Weekends we like to be OUT of the house - I work from home and if I spend all weekend in the house/garden I go a bit stir crazy.

Dh takes ds swimming one lunch time a week, but we're thinking of doing that at a different time, but I don't think evenings are suitable...

How can I improve all this? How do you fill your weekends with fun activities and how do you make your evenings more interesting?? We don't have much disposable income so anything too expensive is not really an option.. but suggest it anyways!
I've been thinking hobbies (tried knitting!) but haven't come up with much I'm good at. I'd love to try gardening but we're moving soon so not the best option in a rented house...

Sorry if this is a rant!

[fisil]

we found this when ds1 came along - before then we'd never been tv people (didn't even have one the first 2 yrs we lived together). So dp took up film making and i took up cardmaking and knitting. We both read a lot and i often have a bath instead of watching telly!

[expatinscotland]

After DD goes down

Clean

Work on my second job

Play online

DH works evenings and weekends and I work days so 'quality time' has a whole new meaning.

[Gizmo]

Evenings in the Gizmo household are a fair division between house stuff, 'proper' recreation and TV, I guess.

DH and I do swing shifts of evening childcare so theoretically I can go out Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday night, although all three would be a bit much. When I'm in, I try not to turn the TV on unless there is something I specifically want to watch (not always successfully...)

Otherwise, I/we:

Cook - plus extra helpings for freezing
Clean - occasionally
DIY - new house needs vast quantities of wallpaper stripping etc
All of the above generally to the soothing tones of Radio 4 or a French radio station
Go for a run - do quite a bit of that or do some yoga
Read papers, books etc
Call friends
Garden (new house, neglected garden - that alone could be a full time job)
Get friends round for supper and/or glass of wine
Have romantic supper with DH and set world to rights
Draw plans for house (quite soothing)
Odd bit of website design for various fundraising activities (ditto)

Weekends are a bit more of the same: I enter races perhaps 4-6 times a year which often means at least one Sunday out and about, we go out and visit friends quite a lot (easy and cheap in a small town!) picnic in parks nearby, visit playgrounds, get ds friends round for tea (bake lots of cake)

Luckily round here is quite flat so we can cycle out into countryside and visit a pub or paddle in local rivers - going to the beach can be fun, even when the weather is bad, if you have the right rough weather gear. Kite flying? Camping?

Alternatively we stay home and try things like local museums (great thing about kids is how they can make even the 'biggest ball of twine in Cambridgeshire' museum fun), story time in the local library and bookshop, absolutely any free kids entertainment going (for which I must say our city council is almost embarrassingly good) in which I include things like going to toy shops and letting ds play with display stock!

....God, have bored myself now....it's quite fun when you're doing it, honest!

[Tortington]

i go out and get sh*tfaced every other friday is poss. play pool and wear low cut tops so i win

[woollybaalamp]

I have just got a job! For 6 weeks I'll be training from 5-10 Mon-Fri and all day Saturday, and after that I'll be working from 5-10 on 3 evenings - so instead of spending most/all of the evening on the PC drinking wine, I will be up and out, getting paid, and not drinking wine! Huge improvement!

Our kids are very old though - it wouldn't work with little ones - but I'm hoping it will also make me appreciate everybody else more when I am here (as long as they aren't on the PC when I want it ).

[TracyK]

You defo won't need a TV if you have a puppy - so much entertainment in a little bundle. Don't get one in the winter though - all that house training/walking in the cold. Much better spring/summer.
And you are right - you will have to get up and out to take it for walks. My doggie is 14 and until the past 2 years or so - she needed 2 good walks a day - but I've met so many people through walking her. Now its ds to do the introducing - everyone loves babies and puppies!

[flowerfairy]

I needed some ideas to, most evenings atm are spent with me onMN on the laptop and dh playing this stupid online game, he just laughs at me when I say we're not talking very much.

When we're not glued to our monitors we mainly watch DVD's of series eg XFiles, CSI, West Wing which we swap with friends. When the weather is fine and ds asleep we sit in the garden witha shandy, play backgammon, have friends around for poker nights(just with plastic chips not money).

Weekends we visit the park, a farm that is free, large garden centres with plenty to look at, etc.

[GetOrlaithOut]

I work and it's exhausting.