Weekend fun w/toddlers

[kybekynekane]

Hello!

I saw a post on here last night about a mom dreading weekends with her little. I can’t find it to comment so I thought I’d share what I do here. If I’m repeating what others have said, I’m so sorry! I just want to be helpful

I used to dread solo weekends as well. Things got significantly better as soon as my toddler reached 18 months. A lot of local classes opened up to us. But I was doing music classes as early as 7 months to get out of the house.

At 18 months I switched my toddler to 1 nap a day. I know online reading recommended a waiting until 2. However, her daycare already switched her to 1 nap a day and so that’s what we did too. Her naps are about 2.5 to 3 hours at 10:30 am or 11 am with a 6:30 am wake up and strict 7:00 pm bedtime.

I cut my solo weekends into segments:
1st quarter = wake up, 2 quarter = nap time, 3 quarter, 4 quarter = bedtime.

Saturdays:
1st quarter: breakfast time, we go to a class (music class, dance school, soccer shots) or to a local park, a walk. Something to wear her out. 10:10 we do a snack then it’s time for a nap. (I also get to socialize with lots of other moms at these classes doing the same thing)

2nd quarter: nap. I tend to nap too bc I’m tired lol. But I’ll also clean or do laundry if I’m motivated. This is rare

3rd quarter: normal wake up between 1-1:30 and she eats lunch. Then we are out the door by 2-2:30 for our afternoon activity: City park, a playground, children’s museum, the zoo, aquarium, birthday party, festival, local concert, library activity, botanical garden, children’s amusement park (I live in a festive city so there’s always something going on)

4th quarter: get home, tv time while I cook dinner, we eat and she has a bedtime routine that puts her to bed. She’s exhausted and so am I.

Sunday: (pretty much like Saturday but more chill)

1st quarter: church, breakfast outting for just us girls or farmers market

2nd quarter: nap (I nap too)

3rd quarter: Depends on how energetic I feel and what I need to do to prep for the week ahead. So, if it’s a lot I will have her help me around the house. She helps me load laundry, switch laundry into the dryer, unload the dryer (she loves to press the buttons). She “helps” me wash dishes, sweep, mop, and vacuum. (She has her own toddler mop, broom, spray bottle, duster lol) sometimes she’s not very helpful I find it amusing. Hasn’t grasped folding clothes so I wait until she’s in bed for that.

We turned our office into a play room so I stick her in there while I cook. We go to a park for like 30 minutes in the evening, or for a walk, or just hangout on the porch listening to music and eating berries — simple.

Sometimes it’s 40 minutes of Miss. Rachel while she snuggles me. I’ve no qualms with spending time.

4rth quarter: dinner and bed

I’m not too hard on myself. Some days we spend all day at home doing stuff around the house. Some days I’m super motivated and getting out. I find that my toddler likes being out and about. It makes it easier to put her down at night. So I paid for memberships to our local zoo and aquarium and can go any time. Same for the children’s museum (however if I go 1 hour before closing I get in free ). I also like getting out with her.

We went to a Van Gogh interactive exhibit and she had a blast with the colors, lights, and the art.

I think my little just enjoys spending time with me, esp since she’s in daycare for 35 hours during that week.

Look up free toddler groups and activities as well. I’ve lost weight staying active on the weekends too.

Good luck!

Other 3rd Quarter ideas: sometimes we go grocery shopping ( she loves to see all the food, put stuff in the car, help load the belt) or we will go shopping — the mall or marshals. Run errands ect.

 

[seniorbird]

@kybekynekane Following. I really love how you broke it down. I’m heading towards this stage now, my LO is now a young toddler

 

[kybekynekane]

@seniorbird You’re welcome! The more I take her out and explore the better behaved she is as well. People are like “she’s so chill.” It’s because I’m always taking her places or out to eat.

She loves to go out to eat. Esp when the waiters bring her food out early in timed increments.

 

[tisiphonesrc1]

@seniorbird I agree this is a great breakdown!

 

[katrina2017]

@kybekynekane This resonates. We’ve always had the “morning activity, afternoon activity” pattern with the kids. The difference for us is that my youngest (18months) naps 1230-1430, so we tend to do something bigger on the morning then just do a couple of errands or go for a walk in the afternoon. Sadly my older one no longer naps so we don’t get that blissful 2hours of peace to break up the day, but we do encourage him to play alone in that time and then let him watch TV for a bit too.

My worst nightmare is staying indoors with my kids for more than half a day, although when we potty trained my eldest, we did stay home for 5 days and we survived somehow!

 

[kybekynekane]

@katrina2017 Oh that’s awesome!! I would love for our big activity to be in the am as it’s much cooler around that time. But all the children’s places and libraries don’t open until 10 am?! Festivals and events rarely are open at 8. All the classes are 9, 10, and 11 am :|

I’ve lived an entire life by 10 am when stuff opens lol.

 

[scottcford]

@kybekynekane That last sentence, about living an entire life before 10am. That resonates.

 

[pipersopus]

@kybekynekane Mine is now a pre-k kid and still an early riser… the amount of times we show up at 7am at some breakfast place as it opens just to be out of the house is wild. Even the earliest parent/toddler yoga is at 9am and again, we’ve been up for 3 hours by then . The early morning issues are real, especially as the sun begins to rise super early for us (I’m happy for it, I naturally have been waking 545-6 myself.)

 

[edk]

@pipersopus this! We go out to breakfast at 7 am as a family outing on the weekends so we can just get out of the house and kill time until things open up. Why is all the kids activities so late!

 

[belan]

@katrina2017 Sometimes "the planning" to get out of the house can be overwhelming but I agree, it does something to the brain just to breathe outside

 

[younggenius]

@kybekynekane Thank you for laying this out! I wrote the original post about weekends with my 6mo and this is giving me something to look forward to when the schedule gets a bit more predictable and more activities open up. Happy almost Monday

 

[kybekynekane]

@younggenius Yay!! You are most welcome!! It gets better !! Music classes saved me at 7 months esp those that happen after the morning nap time and before the afternoon nap times

 

[feelinglostagain]

@younggenius Yes I even started taking my 6 mo old out to kids classes or family brunch bc he can sit in a high chair. It is a lot of work , totally understand that - I'm a sahm, I think it takes time so having those weekends over time it will feel more normal. Once you start getting better sleep and drop to one (or even two naps) it's easier to go do stuff. Sitting at home is hard bc idc unless you have a nice unicorn baby I'm there banging shit together and singing to entertain him try to rotate rooms, play in your room, his room, outside, change of scenery

 

[samuelp1994]

@kybekynekane I wish my kid napped for that long haha. But I agree—I’m a teacher and so I spend my summers home with my kids. We have two “activity” periods which are sometimes actual activities (gym, farmer’s market, zoo, etc) and sometimes errands. My hard and fast rule is I do nothing with my kids asleep that I can do with them awake. They “help” me do laundry, cook, etc or watch a show while my husband and I do that kind of stuff together.

 

[little1]

@samuelp1994 My daughter loves to help, so we lean into it. She helps pick up her things, put clothes away, wipe up spills, empty the dishwasher, grocery shop (I hand her food, she puts it in the cart), and feed the cats.

I like your rule about naptime work. I sometimes struggle with rushing to do all the things during nap and then am exhausted when she gets up

 

[kybekynekane]

@samuelp1994 I agree with having the littles help. I don’t want her to grow up thinking stuff around the house “magically” gets done. Lol

So she helps me clean her play room (Gracie’s corner clean up song is awesome for this), with cleaning the house, sweeping the porch, grocery shopping ect. She seems to enjoy it so why not

 

[sirtaxedalot]

@kybekynekane So many of the toddler classes in my area are geared towards SAHMs. Weekdays around 10 AM. There is nothing on that weekends. Well, not nothing… but the classes and gatherings that are free or low cost aren’t available.

 

[web209]

@sirtaxedalot Same.

We have the story time at the library. That’s about it. Our outings look like let’s peruse the hardware store or target…. Because weather seems to be regularly crap on the weekend.

 

[sirtaxedalot]

@web209 The “free aquarium” (pet store fish section”) this only works because my kid is 22 months lol

 

[sirtaxedalot]

Not looking for advice just complaining a little.