Best thing you can do is join a pool for the summer. It’s built in activities the whole summer.

AM activity (sport, outing, or play date)
Lunch
Nap (or quiet time/screen time if too old for nap)
PM activity (see “AM activity”)
Witching hour/melt down
Dinner-bath-bedtime

I think what interests me most about these answers is how we all define a weekend “schedule” differently. How do we each break down a weekend day and which parts feel like they’re worth mentioning, etc. more so than the activities listed.

This weekend is pretty typical. Here's our schedule (with one 4 yo):

Saturday morning: make breakfast and do a few chores, do yoga with my DC, then head to farmers market with the whole family
Saturday lunch: at home, if it's nice out on deck
Saturday afternoon: playground for an hour then to another neighborhood to meet up with friends and their kid, more playground time and a walk, then patio drinks/snacks at a restaurant in their neighborhood
Saturday evening: grab dinner on the way home, eating dinner together before bedtime, then DH and I watch a movie together after DC goes to bed

Sunday morning: sleep in a bit, more chores, DH and I take turns going for a run
Sunday midday: birthday party for classmate
Sunday afternoon: grocery store together as a family, then do weekly food prep all together (DC helps) along with making dinner, then family dinner, bath, bedtime

We also often go for hikes or drive out to the beach if we don't have plans with friends. But most weekends we have one or two plans to hang out with other families with kids and then we build around that.

We had to be out of the house no later than 9 or things went haywire (two very active little boys). My kids were quite old before we could just stay home on a weekend and hang out.

Kids under 6 is pretty broad. How many? How old is the youngest? What is the nap situation?

Anonymous wrote:Parent of older children - cherish the time you have with them now.

We would cuddle in bed, make breakfast and all eat together. We’d hang and catch up on laundry and cleaning. We’d go do something fun - like a park, the mall, anything. We’d go see family. It was awesome.

Parent of a 6 month old and 3.5 year old - I think you forget those moments are strewn with tantrums whines and cries. Not so awesome.

Two and four years olds. They have swimming lessons every Saturday but the rest of the weekend we play by ear. Generally one social get together with another family with kids at the beach (we live in LA) or park. We spend both days with the kids since we both work during the week and they’re at preschool and with nanny.

DH and I just resumed Friday date nights after we put the kids to bed.

Parent of older children - cherish the time you have with them now.

We would cuddle in bed, make breakfast and all eat together. We’d hang and catch up on laundry and cleaning. We’d go do something fun - like a park, the mall, anything. We’d go see family. It was awesome.

My kids are older but when they were younger, i did a mix of the following:

Museums
Parks and playgrounds
Play dates
Tot soccer (I hated this)
Swim lessons
Pool/spray parks

I almost always made plans at least one of the days with a friend whether it was an outing together or have them over.

Kids 2 and 5.

Saturday mornings - Relax, play with toys while I make coffee and breakfast. Go outside for a walk, stop by the coffee shop and/or go to the playground.
After lunch - Nap for 2 year old, activity or play date for 5 year old
Late afternoon - Play at home, maybe go for a walk, dinner and bedtime routine

Sunday mornings - Same as Saturday but go to church after breakfast
After lunch - Same as Saturday, sometimes a bday party or host friends at our house
Late afternoon - Same as Saturday but go out to dinner

Sometimes my husband with take one or both kids so I can clean/tidy the house. One big activity a day is the maximum for us!

One sanity saver for me is to put the cleaning, chores and errands up first, then take the kids out into the yard.

I was the “cruise director” was my first and it did him no favors. I use a very different approach with my younger two.

Saturday morning: wash the linens, go to the farmers market and library
Saturday afternoon: household/yard chores and/or playground
Sunday morning: pancakes, walk to park and play with kite/bubbles/chalk
Sunday afternoon: playground

Sometimes one of these is replaced by An Activity (eg outdoor museum event, play date in a farther away playground, trip to the zoo, etc) but mostly this is how it goes. Kids are 2yo and 4mo; 2yo does not nap so bedtime is around 7pm.

When he started walking to 24 months, we went to dead strip malls and let him run down the side walk. Or we'd take him Lake Accotink. He's play on the playground or run up and down the stairs or play in the sand.

We also took him the Hidden Oaks and Hidden Pond. They have inside play areas. Or Lee District, they have a soft playroom.

Once he started making friends around 3-4, we started having play dates at playgrounds.

What does a typical weekend look like for you if you have young children, under 6?