I remember those days, OP. Ignore all the people giving you a tough time. The kids do want connection with you, so try to do it in ways that knock out something you'd already knock out. When my kids were those ages, I'd stick both of them in the bathtub together and play bubble games, or we'd do storytime. I even started a meditation routine with both of them, which we still do today (they're now 7 and 11). Meditation is something I needed for myself anyway at the end of a long day, so this was a great way for them to do something with me.

What is your daycare like? My kids are at one with a wonderful playground/outdoor classroom and the kids spend about 3 hours outside a day - including the freezing cold, when it’s dusk outside and when it’s warmer even when it’s drizzling. They are usually pretty spent at the end of the days. They are totally wild on weekend nights when it’s cold outside and I have not gotten them outside as much. We have had them in another center that was more “education” based - doing worksheets at 3, and we had energy issues at night. I’d look at what they are doing during the day at daycare.

I get where you're coming from, but try to do something low-key with them that will give you all a chance to connect, instead of screen time. Maybe we can do storytime on the floor with pillows or a low-key card game.

If there's any way for you to hang out with them for a short time outdoors after pickup before going home, that would be ideal to get out the wiggles. We have always tried to stay after pickup when possible for my kids to play on the playground or a nearby park. Sometimes there are friends around to play with, or I play with them. I feel I have more energy then before I get home, make dinner, and start to feel settled in for the night.

This miss you OP and just want love and attention.

Our kids are in daycare 8 hours a day and I’m the one who makes dinner so after school, Dh does something with the kids while
I make dinner, he’ll take them out for a walk or ride bikes or something in nice weather. Then after dinner while Dh is doing the cleanup I’ll spend some time with the older one after putting the little one to bed. Or I’ll do the baths and bedtime routines. Both kids are in bed by 8 and then Dh and I get our down time for a couple hours after that.

Anonymous wrote:They are 2 and 6, and both kids spend like 10 hours in daycare/school. After dinner is like 7pm-7:30pm, and they want me to play with them for like an hour. I am super exhausted, so does DH. I feel awesome when kids want me to play with them but I have no energy so I give them screentime instead. I don't even understand why they are still so hyper after school. 6 year old wants me to play board game/card game and 2 year old wants me to dance/sing with her or play toy kitchen after school.

I am curious if do you play with kids after work on weekday?

100% absolutely at least for 30 minutes a day.
Even if it's only 15 to 20 minutes one-on-one they are craving that connection with you.
It is absolutely imperative that you draw boundaries on days that you just don't have it in you but that can't be every day.
Some ideas for connection that also help you move through the night a little bit are cooking or baking together. My son loves to help me make like the pumpkin bread or zucchini bread or we get those box mixes and I make muffins. It's two birds one stone because then we have snack options or stuff for lunches and he also gets one-on-one time with me that's an activity.
I also purposely choose a lot of books that have interaction so like the press here books or barnyard dance and he and Dad act out the book or there's something also a book called stomp wiggle something and we read that and they dance through that.
One of our favorite activities after dinner is to do a flashlight walk. Again a two-for-one the dog isn't being paid attention to she needs a walk we do walk at night time and talk about the stars or right now we do different routes so that we can look at the different Christmas lights.
On nights I'm really exhausted especially during this season cuz for some reason around the holidays sometimes the stress gets to me. We basically go home and we get dinner ready we pack like a picnic I play toys with them for 20 to 30 minutes and then around 6:30 7:00 we get in the car and we go to a Christmas light show. That's one day a week for like 3 weeks. If it's a drive-thru kid in pajamas and by the time the Christmas lights are over and we're driving home they're asleep.
Daycare specifically is not the best at taking them outside like I don't think there's been a day yet that they shouldn't have been taken outside but apparently they disagree with me. I asked and if they weren't outside for both of the outside times then I go straight to the park. It sounds like you have a later pick up but there are going to be parks that have lights. If you tell me an area I can give you some ideas but a couple family oriented accounts in Maryland and Northern Virginia are pretty good at this to follow on Instagram.
A couple weeks ago I picked up a like $5 make your own ornaments thing from Target and we did that tonight. And it's not something that can that's going to be trashed because it's an ornament it'll just get put away and taken out next year and then in 20 years when he's out of college them I'll probably start crying hopefully they make it that long.

How old are you? I never felt that tired until I was in my 40s and by then, my kid was 10 and didn't want or need that much attention.