This past weekend something really fun happened–without any prior plans we got together with new friends for a playdate at our house. We’d just met them at our daughter’s ballet class, where their daughter also goes, and after talking for a while realized that A. our kids liked each other and B. we liked each other. So we decided to have an impromptu playdate.

It was great–no pressure to have a clean house or put out a spread to feed everyone. The girls had some quick-to-make pasta, the adults opened up a bag of trail mix and quickly cut up some cheese and bread. No activities were planned and we didn’t stock up on arts and crafts supplies, which meant that the girls just… well, played. I think everyone had a great time. (It was the opposite type of experience from what Trish wrote about recently.)

This got me thinking: Being spontaneous is really something of a luxury for busy working moms. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve just come back from my daughter’s ballet class. It’s at 9:15 on Sunday mornings. On Saturdays she goes to a music class at 10am.

We’ve signed her up for these weekend activities because during the week she is in preschool 9-3, five days a week. She won’t nap in school (big sigh, we’ve tried every strategy, including bribery, the answer is still no) and is pretty tired afterwards, so going to a music or dance class is out of the question. But she loves music and pretends to be a little ballerina all the time, so we found these weekend classes.

It’s not ideal. We have to plan our other weekend activities around these times (although because they are pretty early in the morning this is somewhat easier) and hanging out in pajamas around the house in the morning isn’t really an option. It makes weekends feel less relaxed somehow, but on the other hand, having somewhere to go takes away the “What should we do today?” question - or just delays it til after we’re done.

Do your kids participate in activities on weekends or do you try to keep weekends relatively free?