Quailty family time - if you manage it, what do you do?

[geisha]

And if so how?
Dh and I work FT like lots of other parents. We never seem to manage to spend "quality" time with the kids as our time off is spent either trying to catch up with what we have missed in the week or telling them off. We are -happy- prepared to ignore the mess and just do the essentials but having made the time - we have forgotten what to do with the dc - what do you do? DC nearly 3 and 5 btw.

Ask them what they would like to do
Go to the beach
Go for a walk
Play a game
Read a book
Go to the park
Put a dvd on, make popcorn, close curtains, have cinema afternoon
Visit friends/relatives
Invite friends over

My children are the same age as yours btw

Jigsaw afternoon
Crafty stuff
Kid friendly museum
Park - to play/walk/bike ride/kite/football
Make cakes
Make and eat a carpet picnic
But best of all - hang about on the sofas and follow their lead

Quality time does not have to be about doing anything in particular, its just about giving them your time. Some of the best afternoons we've had with our kids so far have been spent in the front room, building lego towers and knocking em down again

We made a robot today (cereal packets/paint)
and a swamp (collected leaves from park selotaped to loo rolls... nice walk too)

and then played with their toys with them (they love it when we do)

oh and made lunch together and talked at dinner

more is less I reakon - big trips are good but too much time in car/restaurants end up mising out on actually being with kids iyswim!

Basically if you work full time you need a cleaner who is happy to put the washing on and do school uniforms too, otherwise you spend your life trying to catch up.

We make sure that we sit down to eat as a family at least five times a week; mostly this is at home but sometimes in a restaurant.

Yesterday we all went swimming, which was lovely.

Sometimes we go walking.

Most of our family time revolves around food in some way though, so, if walking, we'll have a picnic, or go to a cafe: ditto swimming, cinema etc.

I am always in a position of "catch up" too (and I only have one child and work part-time!!) - I really understand where you are coming from

I think domestic jobs expand to fit the time available and therefore the only way to get family time together (same with keeping fit or any other activity you want to give a priority to) is to ringfence time

ie Wednesday evenings = 1 hour for famly board game (just an example) or family activity such as working on a project together ...

and/or family bicycling or sport together on a Saturday

and/or Sunday afternoon = 2.30 to 4.30 = everyone chooses their five favourite tracks, plays it and listens and then someone else gets a turn

Once you get in to a routine, it becames a lot easier ....you don't book things that clash with the time you have ringfenced ...and like everything else, I think little and often is best rather than one block of time per week when everyone is artificially under pressure to have fun (ifyswim)

We try and go out for a walk in the woods after lunch every Sunday ....bit of a cliche but we all really enjoy it. Cooking together is good too.

we both work full time too, though I work shifts, so am not here everynight to have dinner with the family, or every weekend to do family things.

We get round this by setting aside one evening a week for family night. (normally fri as the boys don't have school the next day then).

We get pizza, and/ or other finger food, put a picnic rug on livingroom floor and sit and eat in front of a family film, with popcorn and icecream after the pizza.

Our ds's are a bit older, 6 & 8, but we've done this for over a year now and the boys love it.

No matter how much or how little we manage to do together all week, we all know we have that one evening that's just about us having fun together.

Good to get your ideas - completely understand the artificial pressure - think I probably have too high an expectation. Lego towers sounds like hassle-free fun as does a picnic wityh a film.