What's your after work routine?

[TheHeirOfSlytherin]

I get home from work with ds at around 3.30 during the week and I feel like I just potter the day away after that. I'm up at 5am for work so come the evening I'm knackered but I think I'm missing out on the only time I get with ds on weekdays.

As soon as we get home I make tea and after we have eaten I just end up tidying up. I try and get ds playing with playdoh or colouring/painting while I am cooking to delay him asking for the tv to be put on. Then from 5-6pm the tv does go on because playdoh will only hold his attention for so long.

6pm is the start of his bedtime routine so the tv is off, upstairs for a wash/bath, pyjamas on, story and bed by 7pm.

It just feels like we don't do anything worthwhile which is why I'm wondering what your evening routine is like?

You don't say how old DS is, but sounds like pre-school, so I would say that your routine is pretty normal, especially since you have to get up so early for work.
One thing I did when mine were younger was to try and have a couple of nights a week with a really easy tea- so can you batch cook a big pan of spag bol/ stew or something like that so you can freeze it. That way, on the night all you have to do is stick it in a pan to re-heat and do some rice, pasta etc.
That way you could maybe take DS to the park for an hour as dinner will take ten mins to get ready.
If its a warm day could you pack up a pic-nic tea and go to the park/beach or wherever to eat it?
How about going to the local pool for a swim with DS? Then if money isn't an issue, quick tea in the cafe or some other place he likes on the way home.
But I would only have done this once a week. Sounds like you have a really good routine going so I wouldn't beat yourself up about it!

Sounds like we do something of a mixture between you, OP, and chauffeur

Mine are 3 and 1. We get back from work/nursery nearer to 4.30, but we don't start bed time til more like 6.30.

Yes, much of the evening is cooking, tidying etc, but we often stop in the park on the way home, or I walk to nursery having dropped the car at home, and we walk / cycle home again.

The boys adore it if we get a blanket out, and eat tea in the garden (sandwiches usually), so can see picnicking out somewhere would be amazing for them.

Then, in this hot weather, we play in the garden rather than TV - water, chase, balls, bikes.

We don't tend to do too much, but we've all had a long day at nursery or work, so swimming or some of the other ideas above would be too much for me personally, but it depends on how close these things are, I guess!

Don't stress, mine are equally happy pottering with a bit of parental guidance, as an activity.

Thank you those ideas are really good. Ds is 2 sorry I should have said in my op.

I think I'm a bit sick of being stuck inside all evening and have got into the mindset that it's loo late in the day to do anything which used to be true when ds would go into that late afternoon tantrum stage but he seems to have grown out of that lately! (fingers crossed)

The park at 6pm is great - the bigger kids stick to the big kit, and we usually get the toddler stuff to our selves. It helps we have a tiny park 200m away, so we really can go and just be out of the house for 30 mins.

We tend to go out when we are reaching tantrum stage as a way of diffusing things!

My ds is 3.5 and we usually go swimming on a Sunday morning but decided to try it on a weekday after nursery (4pm) last week. We both really enjoyed it and it was nice to do something different on a weekday. I have been feeling the same as you, op, so am trying to do a couple of activities out of the house after nursery/work.

DS is 21 months. Good weather is great because he loves being in the garden and so do we, or we take him for a walk to feed the ducks or to the park (both on our doorstep). Otherwise i play lego or something with him for maybe 30 mins to an hour. TV doesn't hold his attention, so it's difficult as he's getting bored with all his toys. We bath him around 7pm and he's in bed around 8pm - we deliberately take our time with him at bedtime to give him a proper wind down so he feels like he's had 'quality' time with both of us. So we always do a 'slow time' bath and bedtime, including maybe listening to some music as we get him into his PJs and then reading him a story. We have maybe two or three hours with him in the evening and just weave in dinner and other chores whenever we can, depending on whose turn it is to put him to bed etc. It helps that he's usually eaten by the time we collect him from the CM.