Weekly routine and activities with toddler and baby

[graysor]

Tell me about your weekly routine and what regular activities, clubs, classes and things you do with your toddler, with a baby in tow.

I’m on mat leave with dd 2.9 and ds 4 weeks. I’ve been gone to a few playgroups, we regularly go to the playground and the library. But dd needs a bit more to keep her interested nowadays.

What activities do you do? How often in the week do you do a particular activity? I like to have a fairly regular routine, but I’m not so how much is realistic or sensible to do.

Thanks!

swimming. you can pop baby in one of these: link or one of these if you would rather keep him/her close to you link2 and then pop arm bands and/or a float vest like this and then have fun splashing about in the water.

if you would prefer to stay dry, what about watching a movie (netflix has some good kids ones) with popcorn?

sorry forgot to add, we have a movie most saturdays and we go swimming once a week.

For me nursery 2 mornings a week for the toddler was a lifesaver.

But apart from that we mostly did play dates with friends with similar aged kids. Either out and about at soft play or the park etc or at each other’s houses. Just so much easier if someone else can keep an eye on one of them while you deal with the other one.

We mostly did one class a week - gymnastics or swimming or football or music. we’ve tried a few. Where I could just sit with the baby and watch. I liked to have a specific time to get out of the house for. Then the other mornings we did a play date. If no plans then we went to the shops or to the park. Swimming I personally found extremely difficult with 2

Dd loves swimming, but there’s no way I’m brave enough to take them both.

Play dates would be good. We don’t know many people locally with similar age dc so it’s a bit tricky. I need to work on making friends!

We have a gym class trial next week. Hopefully dd will enjoy it. And it will wear her out!

Mine were closer in age, so I had a younger toddler and newborn.

I aimed to get out every morning. Library for rhyme time, music class, park/play date, supermarket and coffee and then a day out (farm, soft play etc). Some days we got home for lunch and a nap, some days not. I just took a packed lunch for the eldest.

Getting out gave me a bit of focus each day to get dressed and ready. I frequently just left; breakfast dishes on worktop, kids in pram both crying etc. By the time we got home everyone had had a nice time, we'd achieved something, kids were tired and the fresh air definitely helped. Then I could do a bit of housework, quiet activities, bit of tv and then it'd be dinner time

I used to go to a different baby group most weekdays but tbh I’ve got out of the habit lately. The baby is getting very mobile. Toddler still gets tired easily walking. Managing them walking to places and on the bus is a pita. It’s wet a lot suddenly (autumn). Got to get back into it because toddler has been having way too much screen time.