What is your social life like?

[Anonymous]

Parents of elementary school kids, what is your social life like? I work full-time, including in the office 3 days a week, and have my kids in activities, so I really only socialize if it is on the weekend and in my neighborhood, generally with other families. I have grown apart from some friends who like to do stuff during the week and live about 25 minutes away because I just can't swing that, particularly on a day I go to the office. Is this pretty normal?

[Anonymous]

I don’t do things during the week every week but yes I still see friends who live farther away during the week.

I commute to work 5 days a week.

Do you have a spouse? My spouse and I communicate and figure out weeknights if one of us has plans. Sometimes it might take a carpool. 2 kids.

[Anonymous]

It pretty good

[Anonymous]

I see a friend for dinner twice a month. That is all I have time for.

[Anonymous]

OP I think that's normal. Or at least it describes me pretty well.

However, I have kept up pretty well with a few pre-kids friends who live further away by calling them to catch up, and then we see each other a few times a year (for birthdays and the like).

[Anonymous]

I rarely socialize during the week but DH does once a week (a hobby club). Our social groups are mostly parents with same aged kids, from either school or church. My pre-kids friends are not local; I call them on the weekend or we text. Relatives are local, which is great but cuts into social time too.

[Anonymous]

Socializing during the week? I didn't know that was a thing I have an elementary schooler + toddler.

During the weekends we socialize with other families (with the kids). Once in a blue moon we might do something without the kids.

It probably seems really lame, but I'm fine with it. I think when the kids get a bit older we'll try to focus on ourselves a bit more.

[Anonymous]

I've dropped all my friends except the local ones. We go out with another couple for dinner about 1-2x a month. Sometimes we share a babysitter. It is a neighbor, parents at our school or just local friends. I prefer to only really keep in contact with 5-10 women rather than join a larger group. I see some mom friends at birthday parties too, but those are rare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've dropped all my friends except the local ones. We go out with another couple for dinner about 1-2x a month. Sometimes we share a babysitter. It is a neighbor, parents at our school or just local friends. I prefer to only really keep in contact with 5-10 women rather than join a larger group. I see some mom friends at birthday parties too, but those are rare.

Also, those friends I see for dinner....that takes effort. A lot of effort. I don't do the "let's hang out!" No, let's pull out our calendars and text the babysitter. My friends appreciate that about me.

[Anonymous]

I’d say the difference in my social life is now that I’m a parent with adult demands, I “socialize.” I don’t “meet up with friends.”

So in college I might hang out with friends or see a movie and bonds were close. Now it’s planned activities usually revolving around our kids being activity buddies, or chatting with fellow volunteers at school or at an organization. This started changing once I began working. Coworkers are people you can socialize with and get to know over time because of proximity, you can’t really become bff.

[Anonymous]

I no longer work so I socialize a lot. When I was working, I only had time to go to work and barely keep my house together. We would socialize with other families in the neighborhood with the whole family.

Now I lunch, work out, have drinks with friends relatively often. Most of my friends work with flexible hours. I also have friends who have demanding jobs and live further away. I see them less and usually at larger parties or birthday dinners/brunches and more rarely, spa outing or weekend.

[Anonymous]

I text with close friends daily. Once in awhile I go out to dinner with a friend on a weekend. I go to mom’s nights out for my kids classes. And I see moms at play dates which i admit im not great at organizing regularly because i work full time.

When I WFH, I do lunch or coffee with a friend over my lunch hour maybe once a month.

That’s about the extent of my social life these days but having young kids and working is a lot!

[Anonymous]

We have a friend without kids who comes to see us nearly every week, usually for board games. Other than that, most of my socializing is informal; I talk with other parents during activities or at the playground, or I'll hang out with neighbors while our kids are playing at one of our houses. I talk to people at church during coffee hour. I've got a couple parent friends I text a lot too.

I'm pretty introverted, though, so this is plenty of socializing for me.

[Anonymous]

Very sporadic. I try do a walk with a close friend once every other month. Get together with other families maybe once a quarter.

[Anonymous]

Between homework and activities (I coach a sport and my oldest is in MS), weekdays and weeknights are not really for socializing, although I have a flexible WFH job so I will meet friends during the day for coffee, lunch, or a walk - maybe 3-4 times a month, depending. Other than that, I have various groups of friends I see semi regularly, DH and I like to go to dinner with other couples a few times a month on weekends, a dinner with a friend on occasion on a weeknight. Sometimes we socialize with other families, but we value our downtime on weekends now so use them to relax when we can. We do spring break with my best friend and her family and vacation with other families over the summer as well.