I’m a Christian churchgoer and it’s pretty amusing to me that people think OP can just go to another church for an earlier service. Many of us go to a particular church for theological reasons, maybe cultural ones too. Even within denominations churches can vary. I’m sure that’s true of Methodist churches.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like I’m recommending this a lot on here but check out Laura Vander Kam, who writes about time management. She has a book about working moms called “I know how she does it” and her chapter on weekends talks about maximizing weekend time. There needs to be some planning and forethought to maximize time. I have a two and four year old and the loose frustrating weekends are those where we haven’t planned properly.

OP here - I love a good book! I'll put that one on my list.

I think looking over the (helpful) posts here that you're right that planning and forethought would help me feel more accomplished. By the end of the workweek we're both exhausted and shooting from the hip, so maybe building in some planning time would help with that. I liked the idea of the person who made the to-do list that included small tasks, I think that could help, too.

For all the meanies, of course I didn't post my whole minute-by-minute schedule. It isn't like we're staring at the wall from 4-6pm or we never do "kid stuff" - we'll play in the yard or at a local playground, or in the house, and when one adult is at the gym the other takes the kids nearby to play. I know the gym time will probably need to change eventually but for the moment we can't even regularly go to the zoo or museums so what's the point? But between snack and dinner and the prep it takes to get the kids out of the house for a "bigger" trip we find that time block hard to manage. I think things will improve more post-COVID/when there are vaccines for my kids - we used to use that block of time for local errands, which we don't do with the kids now, so running errands without the kids creates additional logistical nightmares. Pre-COVID that would have been library/grocery store/etc. but all those things are truncated or more complicated at the moment. Better planning out of our time would probably also help, but is just another thing to do! Worth a try to see how much it improves things, though.

It is interesting to see all the people eating dinner at the pool - I've never even been to one that has allowed food! I'm pretty sure food isn't permitted at any DC public pool, so while we could sneak in a snack I'd never dream of setting up a literal picnic.

Umm, okay then. Re what's bolded, PPs have suggested tons of fun kid outings we all do right now, but you seem to have a very rigid way of looking at things, OP.

OP…what do you do at night? Why on earth aren’t you handling chores/working out after the kids are down, especially during the week? It seems like a massive waste of time to do that during the weekend when the kids are awake? I understand what you mean by it seems like the day is gone after nap as we also find it hard to do much other than go to the neighborhood park after nap as by the time the 2 yr old is fully awake it’s like 3:30 and you only have a few hours. But you can also let go of needing to cook and eat dinner at a certain time each day as well. We went on a trip recently and packed a picnic for the beach - kids stayed up way late and we had no downtime but it was fun.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, what’s your denomination?

Methodist

NP- I'm Episcopalian. Every church I've ever attended has had an 8ish and 10ish service. There are no other options. Saturday night isn't a thing.

I'm Episcopalian and my church has 5 weekend services every week, including Saturday and Sunday nights.

No, it doesn't. The largest Episcopal church in the US has four weekend services. The largest Episcopal church in DC has two. The largest in Alexandria has three. The largest in Maryland has two. The largest in New York City? ONE.

Of all the weird things to lie about on the internet...

I just Googled Episcopal services in DC, and the first three hits all had multiple service options with a variety of formats. People need to stop pretending that OP is locked into an 11:00 service. She may WANT to attend that service, but saying there aren’t options is just not true.

https://cathedral.org/worship/
https://www.stmarks.net/services/times-location/
https://www.christchurchgeorgetown.org/

I'm the OR and this is meaningless. I'm just telling you no episcopal church has five weekend services.

Anonymous wrote:I feel like I’m recommending this a lot on here but check out Laura Vander Kam, who writes about time management. She has a book about working moms called “I know how she does it” and her chapter on weekends talks about maximizing weekend time. There needs to be some planning and forethought to maximize time. I have a two and four year old and the loose frustrating weekends are those where we haven’t planned properly.

OP here - I love a good book! I'll put that one on my list.

I think looking over the (helpful) posts here that you're right that planning and forethought would help me feel more accomplished. By the end of the workweek we're both exhausted and shooting from the hip, so maybe building in some planning time would help with that. I liked the idea of the person who made the to-do list that included small tasks, I think that could help, too.

For all the meanies, of course I didn't post my whole minute-by-minute schedule. It isn't like we're staring at the wall from 4-6pm or we never do "kid stuff" - we'll play in the yard or at a local playground, or in the house, and when one adult is at the gym the other takes the kids nearby to play. I know the gym time will probably need to change eventually but for the moment we can't even regularly go to the zoo or museums so what's the point? But between snack and dinner and the prep it takes to get the kids out of the house for a "bigger" trip we find that time block hard to manage. I think things will improve more post-COVID/when there are vaccines for my kids - we used to use that block of time for local errands, which we don't do with the kids now, so running errands without the kids creates additional logistical nightmares. Pre-COVID that would have been library/grocery store/etc. but all those things are truncated or more complicated at the moment. Better planning out of our time would probably also help, but is just another thing to do! Worth a try to see how much it improves things, though.

It is interesting to see all the people eating dinner at the pool - I've never even been to one that has allowed food! I'm pretty sure food isn't permitted at any DC public pool, so while we could sneak in a snack I'd never dream of setting up a literal picnic.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, what’s your denomination?

Methodist

NP- I'm Episcopalian. Every church I've ever attended has had an 8ish and 10ish service. There are no other options. Saturday night isn't a thing.

I'm Episcopalian and my church has 5 weekend services every week, including Saturday and Sunday nights.

No, it doesn't. The largest Episcopal church in the US has four weekend services. The largest Episcopal church in DC has two. The largest in Alexandria has three. The largest in Maryland has two. The largest in New York City? ONE.

Of all the weird things to lie about on the internet...

I just Googled Episcopal services in DC, and the first three hits all had multiple service options with a variety of formats. People need to stop pretending that OP is locked into an 11:00 service. She may WANT to attend that service, but saying there aren’t options is just not true.

https://cathedral.org/worship/
https://www.stmarks.net/services/times-location/
https://www.christchurchgeorgetown.org/

Your first link literally only shows one sermon-based service. I doubt OP would feel religiously fulfilled if she only ever went to the Covid-19 prayer service. But really that’s neither here nor there. Didn’t she say she was looking at other churches anyway? And isn’t Episcopal?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, what’s your denomination?

Methodist

NP- I'm Episcopalian. Every church I've ever attended has had an 8ish and 10ish service. There are no other options. Saturday night isn't a thing.

I'm Episcopalian and my church has 5 weekend services every week, including Saturday and Sunday nights.

No, it doesn't. The largest Episcopal church in the US has four weekend services. The largest Episcopal church in DC has two. The largest in Alexandria has three. The largest in Maryland has two. The largest in New York City? ONE.

Of all the weird things to lie about on the internet...

I just Googled Episcopal services in DC, and the first three hits all had multiple service options with a variety of formats. People need to stop pretending that OP is locked into an 11:00 service. She may WANT to attend that service, but saying there aren’t options is just not true.

https://cathedral.org/worship/
https://www.stmarks.net/services/times-location/
https://www.christchurchgeorgetown.org/