The week goes by in a blur doesn’t it? And well, the weekend goes by even faster!
Does anyone else feel like they have big plans for the weekend but suddenly it’s Sunday night and you don’t even know what you did all weekend?
Or do you find weekends stressful – there can be a lot of pressure to be out there having amazing adventures with the kids, or weekends full of baking or crafting (especially if you are scrolling instagram) so if your weekend doesn’t look like that you can end up feeling full of guilt.
There are a lot of mums who struggle with the weekend, not just the pressure of doing something exciting, but being out of routine and as much as you love your kids just feeling like it’s hard being with them 24/7 whilst trying to keep them entertained.
Having a plan can be so beneficial – you can actually feel like you achieved something this weekend and just feel more in control of everything. It will also help keep everyone happy if everyone wants to do different things – it will get everyone on the same page so there is no more ‘what shall we do this weekend, we should go somewhere’ and then next thing it’s lunch and you haven’t even done anything yet.
We have a range of personalities in our house, some of us like a mixture of ‘house days’ and going out in our weekends, others of us like to be non-stop all weekend and the thought of just being in the house all day stresses us out.
I love a house day.
Make a plan
The details
Check your calendar – what is going on this weekend? Are there any events going on? Did you say you’d visit someone?
What is the weather doing? If it’s giving a stormy weekend there is no point planning a beach day!
Check in with everyone
What does everyone WANT to do this weekend?
This makes life so much easier knowing what everyone wants to do.
Everyone knows how stressful and hard work it is trying to get a child ready and out of the door for something they don’t want to do!
See what everyone would like to do, and then as long as it’s a reasonable request try and fit that into your weekend or make plans to do it next weekend.
For example, my husband might say he needs to chop logs up my parent’s farm – so we can all go up, I can visit my parents and James can do logs.
Our teenager might say he has a chemistry test next week and he needs to revise, so it makes sense to make sure we have a block of time at home for him to get some work done.
We might need to *REALLY* sort out our daughters bedroom, so we might block a day off to do that.
Work out what everyone wants and needs to do and then see where you can fit it in on the weekend.
Think ahead for your Sunday night
Sunday night is kinda crazy in this house.
Everyone needs baths, the kids are usually a little bit apprehensive about school the next day so that can mean moods can sometimes be a bit off, there is usually some last minute piece of homework that has been forgotten about and it’s just getting packed lunches and ironing uniforms etc that needs to be done.
It can seem a bit manic.
So my advice here, if you are reading this and thinking ‘Our Sunday nights are a bit crazy too’ is to plan the bigger thing you are doing on the Saturday (if you can), and the smaller thing on the Sunday so that you can be home at a decent time.
It will save your stress levels so much not rushing around at bedtime trying to get all these things done, just come home a little earlier and give yourself some breathing room.
Get it done
There is nothing worse than planning to get a load of stuff done over the weekend – you know the type I mean, just those little tasks on your todo list that keep getting pushed on to a later date, or those little tasks that you say ‘I’ll just do that on the weekend’, but then the weekend arrives and you just don’t manage to get them done because you are busy or you do try to get them done but you are so start/stop with the kids calling you every two minutes you just feel really frustrated.
Sound familiar?
Stop leaving those things for the weekend. Try and fit them in the week.
Block out an hour on a Friday afternoon to just get those ‘I’ll leave it for the weekend’ tasks done.
Spend that time focusing on your family, and if you do find you have a chunk of time where you could get on with stuff – either choose something else on that list or just use that time to rest. Read a chapter of your book maybe.
I recommend you rest!
Make it a routine
You could take it a step further and make it more of a set routine.
Anest likes to know exactly what is going on in our house on the weekend or she ends up overthinking it and setting off her anxiety and feeling unwell.
So we know that having a plan on the weekend makes our life a million times easier, but sometimes there isn’t always a concrete plan yet or we just don’t have a clue what we are doing.
It can help to have themes on each day so that we know roughly what happens.
For example –
- Friday night will always be family film night. It’s not set in stone, but as long as everyone is home (and feels like it) Friday night is the night we watch a film.
- Saturday is family fun day – This is the day you could go for a family day out, or go for walk, or do something together – but the key point is it’s together.
- Sunday is visiting/house day – Sunday could be the day you go visit grandparents or maybe the day that you decide that you’ll get on with things or do your own things.
The aim is to have time spent together as a family, doing fun things, and then leaving room for visiting relatives and space to do what you want too.
Having a theme day helps spread your time better so that you aren’t spending the entire weekend just visiting different relatives and not leaving any room to spend time as a family.
Get ahead for the week
There is nothing worse than on a Sunday night realising that the house is completely upside down after the weekend and you have a todo list longer than your arm waiting for you on Monday morning too.
On a Sunday evening, do a quick 15-20 minute home reset so that you aren’t going into Monday feeling extremely stressed out. You don’t have to clean here, just put everything back where it is supposed to be – you ‘reset’ it.
Write everything down for the week and make a rough plan for each day.
Nothing beats going into a fresh week feeling calm, knowing exactly what you are doing this week and that it’s all under control.
Sunday Ritual
Some people enjoy having a Sunday ritual where they do a bit of a refresh ready for a fresh week.
Things like
- Emptying the bins
- Changing the beds
- Make a plan for the week
- Clean the house
- Do the grocery shopping
- Meal Prep
- Meal plan for the week
You don’t need to do this, but if you think that doing a few of the things on this list will help you feel good going into a fresh week then go for it!
I hope this is helpful and helps make you weekends a little bit smoother!
Do you have a weekend routine?
Beth x
