Typical weekend with small children

[Anonymous]

Two year old:

Saturday’s we have a lesson of some sort (soccer, swimming, etc) and brunch with families from it after. Naptime. Playground. Dinner.

Sundays are farmers market + playground. Post-nap cooking.

On the Saturdays we don’t have an activity, we do a big outing like berry picking, museum, etc and just nap in the car. I’d go crazy just being at home all day!

Cleaning is outsourced and most other errands are dealt with during the week, so few weekends chores other than cooking (which I enjoy).

[Anonymous]

DD is 3. We like to do a mix of scheduled activities and downtime.

Saturday: Breakfast around 6:30/7, 20-30 min of TV, local playground, swim class at 11, home to shower, eat lunch, nap/quiet time, afternoons are usually either library+playground or if she hasn't napped and is losing her mind we may do a movie and play at home, dinner at 5/5:30, walk/ride bike after dinner, bedtime routine

Sunday: Breakfast, 20-30 min of TV, an outing of some sort (farmer's market, playground, museum, etc), lunch, nap/quiet time, gymnastics at 3, right now we have piano class scheduled at 4:30 but we're dropping it because it's too much and at a bad time, dinner, 20-30 min of tv after dinner, bedtime

We usually have a pre-school party once every 4-6 weeks and will move things around for that.

DH and I switch off for downtime. Usually I have her Saturday afternoon and he does Sunday afternoons.

I am a huge homebody but have found weekends are way more pleasant if we are out and about.

[Anonymous]

Our kids are 8 months and 2 years old.

Friday is a pretty typical weekday for the kids - family walk after the nanny leaves, family dinner, bedtimes for the kids. We then have a deal with the neighbors - we alternate Fridays of getting a date night after the kids go to bed, when one member of the other couple comes and "babysits" ie, just hangs out with the monitor in case of emergency. So, we're either each getting a quiet night, one person at home, one at the neighbors, or we're out on a date.

We tend to think of the rest of the weekend as having four "parts" - before nap and after nap Saturday and Sunday. As a general rule, each of us gets one of those parts totally off duty, while the other takes care of both kids. Then we have one part that's family time, when we do something all four of us, and then the last part, we generally try to split and each get a big chunk of quality time with one kid. And usually there's at least some socializing with others in there.

So for example - this weekend. Saturday morning I had off. I got up with everyone to nurse anyway, then I went back to sleep for a looooong nap (bliss!), got up around noon, had a leisurely lunch and shower, and then read a book I've been really into. Meanwhile, my husband took the kids to the park. Baby napped in the stroller, toddler ran around and had fun. Home for lunch and a little playtime, then both kids down for a long afternoon nap. After nap, we had family time! We all played together, then went for a nice walk. Then we had another couple over - they came around 6, hung out with the family, then we had a big dinner with all of us at 7. Then we put the kids to bed at 8, and the adults all played a game of cards and had some drinks. It was great.

Sunday morning my husband had off. He slept in (though not as late as me!) then lounged around and played some video games, then did some meal prep for the week (he's the cook). Meanwhile, I got both kids in the morning, and took them out to a different park. Home for lunch and playtime. Husband jumped in a bit, as I was a bit flustered (it was a new park with wood chips, there was no where to put baby down, and she didn't nap well) then I put the kids down for naps. In the evening, we split. Toddler and I sorted laundry and went on a trip to Target (his choice! Gotta love the "chores are fun!" age) while husband played with baby and Zoomed with his family. Then we bathed the kids together, had family dinner, bedtime. I finished up laundry, husband relaxed, we went to bed on the early side.

That's a pretty typical weekend for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We do a mix. There are weekends where we just have a ton to do like activities, local events (neighborhood Easter egg hunt, local shows,), birthday parties, playdates, dinners with friends, etc. Then we'll have a weekend with nothing and at most we'll go to a fun playground and maybe out to dinner or have a family movie night. I'm very social so if we have too many weekends with nothing planned I'll start coordinating dinner parties or date nights or playdates with other families.

This is us too. 3 and 5 year olds. Recently we’ve been doing more activities (swim class, soccer, etc). We usually try to see friends or family on weekend whether that’s a play date, hosting a dinner party or going out to eat, and then playing in the neighborhood or backyard. Kids don’t nap anymore and as much as I miss the nap time it’s also nice to not have to plan our schedules around it.