Family time vs socialising

[Lisalala91]

Hello,

as a family we do a lot of things together (me, husband, 4yo boy and 6yo girl). Wknds are usually filled with clubs and outdoor activities (hill walking, camping, beach visits etc) and so are our holidays. I have a handful of friends with little ones and we occasionally meet up with them. A lot of people in my environment are constantly meeting up with other families for park visits, dinners, sleep overs etc.

I am worrying that perhaps my children are missing out and are not spending enough time with other children out with their nursery/school environment? We are quite friendly with some parents of their friends but don’t often meet up with them apart fr birthday parties and a play date every few months.

thanks!

I do think it's nice for children to have friends to share these memories with, particularly when they're family friends rather than school friends, it's almost like extended family. Do you have friends who are also like hill walking, camping etc? It'd probably be fun for your kids to have extra playmates on these adventures.

They are very young yet.

You said in your op that they go to school / Nursery and also do clubs at the weekends. That sounds like they are mixing with loads of other people.

Why not put their name down for something like Beavers, which will continue their love of the outdoors, but will be a chance to do so with friends ?

They’re on the (very long!) waiting list for Scouts so hoping to have them started there soon 😊

We are like you OP, we spend our weekends doing family activities just the 4 of us and never meet up with other families with dc except for birthday parties (which are about once a month, so fairly regular). We're all happy with that arrangement and I think the dc's would prefer the activities we do than spend time with other kids - we organise lots of fun days out which would be complicated to organise with another family (often needing advance booking months ahead or long travel to get there). Occasionally we've bumped into school friends at places and tbh the dcs preferred to play with us or each other rather than friends.

DH and I aren't particularly sociable so we don't have friends with dcs the same age, and I don't really like play dates at the weekend as that's the only time DH can spend with us, so I'd rather we were together as a family while they are still young. Most families we know work long hours during the week so they value their family time at weekends too.

I think in time they will want to spend more time with peers as they get older - I'm cherishing this time when they're young and happy to be out with their parents!