What do your kids do on weekends?

[Jenny in Florida]

And, do you do a lot with them?

 

Here's the background: It's a "holiday" weekend, and we have nothing special planned. Yesterday, we spent much of the day driving to the dealership 45 miles away to retrieve my car (long story). My son had lingered on the couch that morning watching a movie on video and eating breakfast in his pajamas. We all puttered around doing our own things for ost of the afternoon (husband and son played computer games while I read and then napped). In the evening, my husband went out and picked up dinner from a restaurant my son especially likes, and we watched a Netflix movie.

 

Today, I went grocery shopping while my husband and son cleared a bunch of stuff out of out kitchen so that we could rearrange things and create a crafting workshop in one corner. (This is something my son has been really looking forward to having available.) Once that was done, my son and I spent some time working on some elements of his Halloween costume. Then he went outside and played with the neighbors for a while. When he came in, we all sat around the living room trying to think of something fun to do. We ruled out going to a movie (nothing to see) and going out to eat (not worth the money). We don't really need to buy anything, so shopping was out. We also ruled out miniature golfing and bowling and similar pursuits, because my husband (who has chronic back problems) is pretty sore after moving things around this morning and I'm tired. I had a tickle-fight with my son (which I won, thank you very much), and he gave up on us and went back outside.

 

Tomorrow, we plan to attend a social thing at our church in the evening. And my husband has promised to help my son build a new model rocket for their monthly launch get-together next weekend.

 

Next weekend, my husband will take our son to the model rocket launch, which will keep them busy until about lunch time. Plus, Sunday school starts at our church. I will be assisting in our son's classroom, and we will stay for the service. So, we will be out for most of the morning every Sunday.

 

The weekend after that, my son will start rehearsals for The Nutcracker and another ballet, which will be every Saturday afternoon until early December. And once choir gets underway for the year, they will have either an extra rehearsal or a performance (or both) at least one Saturday per month.

 

I told my son that, when I was 10, my weekends consisted of Saturday morning cartoons, playing with my friends, reading a book and maybe some shopping or a trip to a drive-in theatre with my parents. I don't remember either of my parents doing crafts with me or playing games or going out of their way to amuse me.

 

During the week, my son has a class or activity to attend every afternoon except for Monday.

 

And yet, somehow, I'm being made to feel guilty or lazy because I'm not rushing around entertaining him this weekend.

 

I'm thinking I need to invest in a T-shirt that says, "I'm your mother, not your cruise director."

 

Am I off base here? Is everyone else planning fabulous, exciting weekends for their children while my poor son is deprived?

[Mom2legomaniacs]

Nope. Once a month during the school year, they do an outing with their Indian Guides group (doesn't involve me!). They try to invite a friend to play. Or we go out with that friend's family for dinner and to the park afterwards so the kids can run around. Nothing fancy.

 

Today, we did go to a knitting friend's place to see her critters. She has a donkey, sheep, alpaca, llama, pygmy goats, ducks, many varieties of chickens, a few dogs, a couple of lizard things, some birds, and some poison dart frogs (I think that is all). That was fun!

 

We are pretty low key for outing things here. Usually we are just at home or catching up on errands.

[Ginger]

You're weekend sounds like something that would be similar to ours. Every once in a while we might have something planned (bday party, or baseball games starting in a few weeks). But usually Sat. am is spent cleaning. Sun am at church, and Sunday evenings we go to dinner at my inlaws.

 

I love that t shirt idea, though...I'd buy one!

[Academy of Jedi Arts]

My daughter goes to Grandma's (my in-laws who live about 10 minutes from my house) just about every weekend. She usually only stays Sat. night, we all go to church together as a family, and she spends a bit of time at there Sunday afternoon. My FIL golfs on Sat. and sometimes works too, so Sun afternoons are their time. Every once in awhile (like tonight) they will invite her to spend one more night. I usually say yes if it is their idea not hers (I don't like the idea of my kid inviting herself places).

 

I used to get a little miffed that they expected this. But my MIL had two boys and she is so much enjoying the fact she has a little girl in her life. Dd has no grandparents on my side of the family. If I have made plans for the family that weekend or if it is a major holiday or birthday, she stays home. Dd and her grandparents have such a great relationship. They do so much for her and she has so many wonderful experiences with them. It shames me now to think I once thought they were trying to butt in too much.

 

If dd is not at the grandparents, we are doing dance stuff, going to a museum, festival, visiting out of town friends, or just doing whatever we WANT here at home instead of what we HAVE to do.

[Jen500]

We are pretty low key for outing things here. Usually we are just at home or catching up on errands.

Same here. Last weekend we bought flowers for the yard and planted them together. Dh taught them some new card games. Sometimes they have a friend over for a few hours. If the weather is nice they go on a bike ride. Maybe once a month we do something special, like go to a festival or visit friends. I guess weekends are 'do stuff around the house' and free time.

[Kris]

What do your kids do on weekends?

 

As little as humanly possible. :D

 

And, do you do a lot with them?

 

Again, as little as humanly possible. I mean, we're practically joined at the hip during the week as it is!

 

I told my son that, when I was 10, my weekends consisted of Saturday morning cartoons, playing with my friends, reading a book and maybe some shopping or a trip to a drive-in theatre with my parents. I don't remember either of my parents doing crafts with me or playing games or going out of their way to amuse me.

 

Same here! Mighty Mouse on Saturday morning and after that it was pretty quiet. :)

 

During the week, my son has a class or activity to attend every afternoon except for Monday.

 

And yet, somehow, I'm being made to feel guilty or lazy because I'm not rushing around entertaining him this weekend.

 

I'm thinking I need to invest in a T-shirt that says, "I'm your mother, not your cruise director."

 

When you find one, please send a link!

 

Am I off base here? Is everyone else planning fabulous, exciting weekends for their children while my poor son is deprived?

 

Er -- I think you're going to find that there are a lot of "deprived" kids here. :D

 

I don't know where this mindset comes from. The weekends didn't mean much to me until I started having to actually work for a living, and even then they didn't mean much for a long time because I was usually, well, working!

 

But I'm constantly hearing "But -- it's the WEEKEND!" from my son -- like 5:00 p.m. on Friday night means we've crossed over into some kind of special territory! If he isn't going somewhere, or if someone isn't coming over here, it's like life just isn't worth living. I "get" that he's got it all over me in the extrovert department -- if I never had to interface with another carbon-based unit for the rest of my natural life, it wouldn't bother me in the least. But -- good grief!

[Kathleen in VA]

We don't do an awful lot here. Our Saturdays are usually school days because dh's day off is usually in the middle of the week sometime. When we do have a day off such as a holiday we usually just hang or I run around doing errands. Some Saturdays we are obligated to do things because we've been invited (bridal shower, wedding, picnics, etc.) but I truly love just staying home and lying very low. When and if any of my dc ever announce to me that I ought to be providing them with whang-bang holidays and weekends, I will hand them the mop and the scrub brush.:D

[hsmamainva]

We work around the house usually.

 

For the past few weekends, my oldest daughter and my husband have been installing hardwood floors on the main level of our house...that doesn't leave much time for anything else!!

 

We may have an occasional get-together with another family...but not too often (maybe once every few months).

 

During baseball and basketball season, there are games on the weekends to attend, so I'm really enjoying the 'off season'!!!

[charlotteb]

We usually try to plan a fun activity for our family on weekends. This weekend, we visited a history museum that has an interactive Jamestown exhibit. We have previously went to parks, taken hikes, etc. Those are usually on Saturday. Sundays are usually reserved for church and then relaxing at home.

[Tracey in TX]

Soccer tournament this weekend--6 games and counting... 1-2 more tomorrow.

play dates, family movie nights

Oh, and we went to Nastia Luikin's Olympic Gold Medal Parade :) There's not a lot of old fashioned down time anymore.

 

Typical weekend hold 3 soccer games, guitar/piano lessons, swimming, church, and one family dinner.

[Plucky]

My favorite weekends are quiet ones spent just as a family. This weekend we went on a bike ride, picked blackberries and made cobbler, dh took the kids to the pool, and barbecued. It was way too busy for me but my dh cannot just be. It was really fun. Pretty soon our weekends will explode and we'll be doing extra weekend get-togethers and classes, camping trips for scouts, and other nonsense (can't we just meet on the one day a week we signed up for???), youth group, play practice, soccer and flag football games, etc. I do bow out of as much as possible but my kids like to go so for the most part we do. But give me a lazy family weekend and I am content. I don't entertain my kids. I do like to do things with them but they know that I need breaks, too.

[EKS]

I do not entertain my children on weekends. My older son has difficulty with this as he is completely unable to entertain himself. My younger son is fine for the most part.

 

I refuse to plan anything exciting for my children on the weekends. All of my planning energy goes into their fabulous, enriching eductions during the week.

 

If they don't like it, tough cookies!

[iquilt]

We try not to entertain them all weekend, but we just started soccer season so that will be our Saturdays until November, Sundays are church/SS days and I try to get some sewing done in the afternoon while everyone else is "resting".

[scrappymom]

We don't do anything too special here either. The weekends are more like a weekday for us as my hubby works afternoon-nights FRI/SAT/SUN/MON(fine dining waiter)...so we just hang out and spend time trying to catch up on housework, the oldest might go to a friends or have a friend over, we might hit the farmer market, etc. But never anything too big. Oh and church for me and the oldest DD on sunday.

I plan ALL week and run around like a lunatic, NOT ON THE WEEKEND! lol.

[Tess in the Burbs]

honestly our weekends are a lot of nothing. sitting on the couch talking/tickling the kids. outside play/ride bikes. yard work. a movie at home.

 

it's low key. we often go to dinner with friends on 5 minutes notice, lol.

 

now that soccer season is starting up we will actually have some place to go.....

 

but my kids prefer to stay home and play with daddy. they hate shopping on the weekends. they just wanna hang out at home :)

[LaMere Academy]

We don't do much. We'll go to the beach or the pool. Grocery shop maybe, play outside, play with friends, watch TV, clean up the house, read.

 

That's about it!

[Peela]

I think as kids get older the level of activities naturally goes higher. My kids are very involved in Scouts. Some weekends I am driving around, and for a while there,the kids were very busy every weekend for many weekends. Now we have had a lull, and several weekends with nothing on.

 

When I say nothing on.....I work on Saturdays, making lunch for 15-18 people, and one child usually helps me. I then go to band practice in the afternoon- for myself.

On Sunday mornings it is our family ritual to go to swap meet, then come home and have a big breakfast and read the papers.

 

I specifically refuse to allow my kids to do group sports that involve weekend running around, because

a) during the week they do do sport activities with homeschoolers that fulfill the need for physical activity and learning games and sports (one 1.5 hour session a week, plus a gymnastic class)

b) I refuse to spend my weekends driving to soccer etc classes when I already drive them to several classes during the week.

c) Scouts often has camps scheduled

d) Dh and I are not into spectator sports (dont watch them on TV) and Dh works Saturdays so it would usually be left to me to do the driving. Dh does no driving of kids during the week- so it would be unreasonable for me to never get time off.

 

I strongly need that the kids, who have very active and busy social lives, need down time, and so do I, so I dont overschedule. But then, what would be overscheduling for me, might not be for someone else, and vice versa.

[linders]

We usually do some family things and some separate things on weekends. For example, yesterday the boys and I went to a folk music festival for 4 hours, and the rest of the day they did Legos, scooters, what not. Today, it was a bday party for all of us for 2 hours, and Legos (them) and reading (me) the rest of the day. Okay, I occasionally refereed. Many weekends (like next weekend) our whole family goes camping together. We happen to be meeting up with some other families this time, so the adults can get together while the kids play. Usually, its just our family.

 

I don't think my folks ever "played" with us or took us much of anywhere on weekends when I was growing up. We ran wild in the neighborhood. But I remember envying families that "did things" together -even - gasp!- played board games together. I remember playing Monopoly and backgammon by myself (kind of defeated any strategic efforts) because no one else would play.

 

I think if everyone is content, whatever works is perfect for a family.

 

And I want one of those shirts - mom, not cruise director. Because there are times....

[Melissa B]

We have school whenever my dh is working - six days per week. On our day off dh and I sleep in. The kids get their own breakfast and entertain themselves - quietly. If the weather is good we usually pack a lunch and spend the afternoon on the water. If the weather is bad we watch movies and play board games. That covers 95% of our days off. :)