How do you find time to have fun at the weekend?

[oneplusone]

I have been feeling for a while that our weekends are all work and no play. We seem to spend the whole time doing household chores, cooking, gardening etc etc and yes, in between we do play with the DC's, pop out to the park etc, but I don't feel we ever really do things as a family.

I think unless we plan that we'll have a day out as a family at the weekend every weekend will go by without us really doing anything.

What do you all do at the weekend? We don't have family nearby and friends are a bit thin on the ground as we've just moved to a new area and it's taking time to make friends. So usually it's just me, DH, DD and DS, all on our lonesome at home.

I have fridays off work, I spend much of the day doing the chores.

On saturday morning, DH gets a lie in (for example) and I finish the chores/hang up washing/fold washing/put on more washing etc and sort out brekky.

On sunday morning, I get a lie in, or we all come back to bed. When we get up, I do washing stuff as above, DH usually does breakfast.

Rest of the day is there to be enjoyed.

Sometimes, I have a screwed up friday and nothing gets done. So, sometimes saturday mornings are a bit more frantic, sometimes we have to do shopping, and sometimes we just say sod it and just get up, eat breakfast and go out, and I do some additional chores of an evening when DD is in bed over the rest of the week.

However, yesterday I spent all day tidying a we had guests for a dinner party, and today I did nothing even though I should have as I was too hungover so we went out to a BBQ.

I will do it tomorrow

I am now paying my 12 year old dd to do a basket of ironing which frees me up a little. I agree about weekends being drudgery most of the time. You have to make a concious effort to go out, and hang the consequences!

We made the decision a long time ago, to be poorer than we should be, in relation to our household income.

We pay a cleaner, an ironer, a dog walker, I am working on a gardener.

We still have chores at weekends, but bubbles to them....

I try to do chores in week and have a blitz on Friday night whilst dd is in bed.

I only do absolutely essential chores at the weekend, and then I do them at night when dd is asleep.

This weekend we have been to dds musical theatre class, then out to the park and lake with dd bringing a friend.
Sunday dancing class, then dd had another friend round for picnic in garden and we all went swimming.

Paying the price this morning though, house filthy, no clean teaspoons for coffee and toys everywhere, but we had a fab weekend

I don't do housework at weekends. I do all my housework between 7 and 7.30 week day mornings (I am minimalist with housework). Washing up and laundry gets fitted in and the garden is left to own its devices pretty much. We go out and about or play all weekend (either all together or individually).

We have evolved a kind of routine whereby saturday tends to be chores day (shopping, kids to football, whatever other chores need to be done) and sunday we try to do something fun. thsi might be sociable, with another family, (invite for lunch for e.g.) or a day out together (usually a walk and picnic). We also try and have some time at home when the children can just play (they are 6 and 4 so we can generally get on with some chores while they do this).
though I do feel somewhat overwhelmed by all the chores there are to do, I'd much rather have some fun!

get your shopping delivered on a weekday evening (or go at a silly late time)

it's depressing to think how much weekend time i've wasted at tescos - no more!

One of the reasons that I gave up working full-time was so that our weekends (and evenings) would be chore and errand free.

Sometimes I think about increasing my working hours. I haven't yet designed (in my head) the life that entails more work that would also let me keep my evenings and weekends free for my family.

Read 'Happiness' by Richard Layard.

I never clean unless its dark, or raining outside.

I spend loads of time in the garden with DS. We know a few people where we live, but not loads and don't spend much time with friends at the weekends really.

Weekends: gardening, beach, eating nice food, eating out when possible, beach barbeques.

Hmm - I feel for you oneplusone, it often feels here like there's such a list of jobs to do that there's never time for fun. We have a major house project going on so there's always an enormous list. Everyone else on this thread seems to have a better work/life balance than me!

Useful tip re going out first and then coming back to the jobs - what I often fall into is thinking "we'll go out when I've finished this" and then of course it's too late, or it's never finished etc etc. We're National Trust members so that's always good for a free day out.

completely agree with oneplusone. We always visit my parents and mother in law of a weekend although have not cut this to once a fortnight (so that's a couple of hours out each sat and sun every other week). I'm a SAHM but there's always something to be done. A lot of time its deciding what to do and when we ahve decided sometimes the weather turns!!!!! Also my dh is not very sociable and sometime gets anxious when we're out and about so going out for a meal isn't always an option although i find this quite relaxing especially on a nice day. Also dd is autistic (poss Aspergers) so this sometimes limits things too. I completely agree with kids first housework second but i find it difficult to live with dust and dog hair when i'm in the house all week!

I am a bit envious of all of you with your full weekends.
DH has a job where weekends are particularly busy, but then he works 7 days a week (every week) anyway, so family time is almost non-existent.
We have an extended family lunch organised in London next weekend, and I am really looking forward to it. DH muttered on about 'having runners at Doncaster next Sunday' (he trains racehorses), but I explained to him that his assistant is well able to handle it, and he will be in London with us, like it or not. He will enjoy it, but will probably spend half the day on his phone.
I work for him too, so what with all that, housework and raising 2 DCs not to be total screw-ups I feel as though I would like to be able to clone myself and do all that I want/need to. I dream of idle weekends!

both work FT.

we do internet tesco for groceries,
batch cook and freeze meals (so reheat when home)
take away at Fri eve
and try "do" something on a regular basis eg go into town, galleries, city farm, see friends. i do diry it to make us do it

must admit can be bitty adhoc on the chores

blackrock, what's 'Happiness' about?

At weekends, chores are fitted in IF they can be fitted around whatever we are doing, eg theme park, museum, getting out of London for the day etc.

Maybe I'm terrible, but I would never consider chores when planning our weekend

We have an 8 wk old so i'm at home all the time on maternity leave at the moment. I dont have a 'show-house' but i hate it went the house is messy.
Before our son was born I cleaned and hoovered every day. Now we're down to a 1hr blitz at the weekend and a quick tidy up eg the dishes, everday. I have a washing on every day but only iron the minimum and dont do my DH's clothes. Apart from a pile of ironing the house hardly looks any different than when I cleaned everyday.
I take 3 mins to whirl round the house before we go out to check house is locked and electrics are off and clear up anything sitting about.
In 8 wks i've seen our son grow up so much and dont want to miss any of it by doing the cleaning!!! In fact I'm talking to him as I type and he's babbling away content as he's with his mummy.

wulfricsmummy,

clothes are washed during the week. If we're home, of course they have proper meals, but I'd rather do the dishes and fold clothes at 11 at night after we come back, than miss a day out.

As for hoovering and tidying (other than cleaning the kitchen after use, it can always wait another day..

Bit sad and geeky but I do the housework in the week once the baby is asleep. Last night I cleaned the bathroom, mopped all the floors and did a load of laundry before I went to bed. But my DH is working away from home during the week so I work extra hard during the week so that our weekends can be kept for fun.

I try to do housework in the week. I work pt 22 hrs a week, and my dh is also away in the week and only comes home weekends. I also try to do all errands as well.
Saturday i tend to plan for fun things and sunday is slob day where i try to just stay at home and have fun.
This mostly works.. and i must say i do get quite narked if i dont get everything done and have to waste some of the weekend on it.

My house always looks a tip but then we just have a lot of clutter and none of us are good at actually putting stuff away, it just gets tidied into a corner.

That said, it is more or less clean, so my tips for lazy housework are:

Put washing on every day/every other day.
Minimal ironing.
Supermarket deliveries.
Kids toys get tidied away before bath (makes me sag to see mess that needs clearing when I get downstairs again).
If bathroom needs it, I give it a quite once over whilst they're in the bath (wait till they're out before quickly cleaning bath obviously!).
Sweep floors, sort washing, and other bits and pieces when they've gone to bed.
Try to be organised and unload dishwasher before bed so ready to load straight after breakfast.
Use slow cooker so I can cook when convenient so not mad rush 15 mins before tea time.
And cleaner comes every other week for 2 hours and she blitzes our 3 bed house so at least I know it gets a good clean once a fortnight . Once a fortnight for 2 hours is a manageable expense for us.

I work part time so on my 2 days off, I can also whizz around when DD2 naps. Weekends are pretty much for fun.

Sorry - meant to say I try to be organised and unload dishwasher before I go to bed. Not dictating that's what others should do as fully appreciate not everyone has one. We now do have one (obviously) but is still a mystery to me why others (DH) still stack dirty plates next to sink where they wait for me to load into the machine. Why?