As a working mom, how do you spend your weekends? Have you ever thought about creating a family tradition?
Whether you work part-time, full time or run your own business, weekends are a big deal for you. For most working moms, it is the only time one gets to do loads of other stuff besides work. It is the time to take the kids out, see family or a friend, have dinner with your partner, or simply enjoy some “me time” to relax and reenergize for the coming week.
Without a good plan or tradition though, you will find that your weekends just pass by without having accomplished much. The weekend may end up being consumed with cleaning, arranging things, and keeping the house in order, especially if you don’t have a house chores help arrangement.
The weekends leave you feeling like you should have done more around the house, had more enough fun, or gotten to see friends among others.
Read: Balancing Family and Work
However, you need to be doing other funnier stuff for the weekends. Your week will be less enthusiastic if you had a boring weekend. Avoid the norm of a boring weekend, and create an interesting way of spending your weekends by creating a routine.
I have met working moms who never know what to do on weekends. A great way to approach this is by establishing weekend traditions or routines that include your kids, partner, family, friends, and self.
How you spend your weekend will often set the tone for how your coming week will be.Below are several fun ideas you can incorporate into your weekend.
9 Simple & Fun Things for Your Family Weekend Tradition
1. Saturday Morning Run/ GYM with Spouse
How do you spend your Saturdays with your spouse? If you and your spouse are fitness enthusiasts, then you will have fun enjoying some form of exercise together during the weekend. While you may have gym or morning run or other exercises for other different days of the week, a planned workout routine on Saturday morning is better and more interesting.
A weekend routine that involves a morning run with your partner makes you more of a team and working together makes you better at working as a team overall in other areas such as finances and parenting. As you work on your fitness, your bond as a couple is made stronger.
Exercising together with your partner on a set day also establishes accountability for both of you which enhance the activity as a weekend thing for you two. It is hence a crucial family tradition for the weekend.
Read: Fun Practical Hobbies for Working Moms
2. Saturday Swimming/ Gaming/ Art Classes with kids
The weekends are probably the only time you get to spend more time with your kids. Just like with your partner does, you also need to participate in recreational activities with your kids. You need to have a fun thing that you do on the weekend as a form of routine or tradition.
Your kid’s interests may vary and include swimming, playing soccer, martial arts, music classes, or any other kind of recreation. While you may or may not necessarily be participating, simply taking your kids to these activities during the weekend and being there for them is encouraging. It cheers them on to pursue what they love doing because you are supporting them.
In addition, having some time together with them is a great family tradition for the weekend that helps in building their confidence. Also, it becomes easier for your kids to relate to you. The fun involved will have your kids looking forward to every weekend for this.
You can alternate the activities for different weekends or Saturdays and your kids will enjoy a spectrum of outdoor activities. Other Saturdays may involve educational trips such as going to the museum, or the park, or the pet store. For instance, from pet stores, the kids will see various animals such as fish, turtles, and critters among others.
3. Saturday Family Breakfast – Expert Tip
A lazy mid-morning breakfast with your family on a weekend has become one of the favorite routines or weekend traditions for most families. Being a weekend, there is enough time to make your family their favorite breakfast and enjoy it together as a family.
For us, it ends up being a brunch given the time it takes to prepare it. You can make it more fun by asking your partner and kids to help in the preparation in whatever manner. Having everyone participate improves the team family spirit as everyone helps out and feels useful.
Also, the fact that everyone gets to eat their favorite meal on Saturday morning makes it a time to look forward to during the week. For my family, we make waffles, pancakes, omelets, or any breakfast that we typically do not have time to make during the weekdays.
You can set up the breakfast in the yard if the weather allows you to get a more outdoor tone to the breakfast. This is a very fun thing to include in your weekend routine or tradition with your family.
4. Many Families Love Saturday Family Picnics – Popular
A picnic can be an interesting way to spend the day with your family on a weekend. This is because it is one of the great ideas on things to do on weekends with family as you can include both your kids and your partner.
Choose an appropriate picnic site close by and have everyone approve it. Plan for things you will need, meals to prepare, and activities to do while there well ahead of the weekend.
Picnics as part of family weekend traditions allows you to save on food and other things by allowing you to pack your snacks, lunch, and drinks. You can also carry some play items and toys for the kids to play with.
A picnic will allow a fresh breath of life as both you and your kids enjoy some outdoor time on the weekend. You can do this tradition on a weekend once a month or as often as you like. However, some seasons are not great for picnics and you may have to look for a more convenient indoor activity to do.
5. Saturday Evening Dinner/Movie Date with Husband
Having a weekend tradition specifically with your partner will keep your relationship fresh and love juices flowing. You and your partner need some romantic time together and the weekend is the perfect time for it. If you spend the better part of Saturday with the kids then the evening is a better time to spend with your partner.
There are many things that you can do together such as enjoy a fancy dinner at your favorite restaurant or even schedule a movie date to watch a movie together. If it is your lifestyle you can also have a night out together on one weekend and have some fun. These are only some of the fun things you can do on weekends for couples and you are allowed to get creative.
You can take this time to have fun, unwind, catch up on things, and generally bond. Bonding is one of the importance of family traditions. The goal is to have some intimate time with your spouse without the presence of your kids or other family members to keep your marriage fire burning.
You will find that the time spent together will make your relations easier and better. You can do this weekly, twice, or at least once a month as a tradition. You may want to arrange for child care or someone to watch your kids as you do so.
6. Saturday Evening Date With Friends is a Perfect Weekend Routine
Your friends are also an important part of your social life. Just like you do for your kids and husband, you need to create some time for your friends into your weekend tradition too. The things you do during this time will depend on the particular friend you are having a date with and your common interests together.
You can enjoy dinner or lunch together. Alternatively, you can watch a movie together, have a spa session together, and get hairdressing services together or simply go shopping together on some weekends.
You may not necessarily meet all your friends at one given time but you can make plans and priorities for your closest friends when need be.
Time with your friends away from family may give you a better perspective of your life as well as give you a little break from the home duties. You get to catch up with your friends and what they have been lately up to. You can also choose this moment to share things in your life such as the latest development at work or home among others if you choose to.
7. Church Sunday is An Important Weekend Tradition
For most believers, going to church is a must tradition for Sundays. This tradition may not apply to everyone but to those that it does, going together to church on Sunday as a family nourishes and strengthens them. It sets the tone for the rest of the day and the new week ahead.
If going to church on Sunday is your thing, you can make it more interesting by eating lunch out afterward. You can also use this time to visit a relative or family member living close by after church. You can also combine the trip back with some grocery or basic shopping in the mall.
When you start, you will find that church Sundays becomes one of the fun things to do on weekends with your family.
8. Nature Walk/Dog Walking on Sundays
Nature walks are one of the top couples and family tradition favorites for weekends. Other than being recreational it is also therapeutic and educational for the kids. You can either tag your kids or your spouse along as you explore the neighborhood during the weekend. You can even walk the dog as you do so.
Choose an interesting trail and allow the interesting magic of nature to work on you. Even though it may be a little exhausting if a long-distance is taken, you will have more fun along the way to cover up for it.
The fun involved should make this part of your fun traditions as a family for weekends. A Sunday afternoon is perfect for this as the weekend winds up to allow for a new week.
9. Massage/Yoga/ Book Reading on Sunday with Spouse
After having an activity-packed Saturday, many people want to have a relaxing Sunday. As such your weekend tradition for Sunday will lean more towards spending time at home/indoors.
It may also be largely affected by how you spend your Saturdays. It means most people may prefer to not have an outdoor activity and just stay indoors, relax and get ready for Monday.
If this is your style, there are a couple of things you can do with your spouse as you wind up the weekend. After a lazy morning or probably church, you can get into a soothing bath and light up your favorite candle.
Yoga is also a great way to relax and is a routine you can do with your spouse. Also, you can do a massage on each other with your partner. If both of you love reading, each can dive into their favorite books as you enjoy your favorite snacks.
Look around for things you like doing and incorporate into your family tradition as things to do every weekend as a couple. These are also some of the things you can incorporate into your self-care routine as a working mom to achieve an all round health.
Read: The Importance of a Self-Care Plan
Tips on Creating and Making Family Weekend Traditions More Fun
With the ideas above you should think of starting your family traditions for weekends and incorporating them. However remember that even after planning for a weekend routine or tradition, it may end not being fun at all.
This may depend on the activity taken, the involvement of all members concerned, and other factors. To ensure that the traditions don’t become boring and everyone involved is happy, the following tips are helpful:
- Avoid monotony; always add something interesting every time to make the activity fun
- Take advantage of close by facilities e.g. if you live near an airstrip watch the planes take off, hot air balloons taking off, skydivers landing, etc. together with your kids. It will be a fun weekend this way
- You can take a walk to the beach if you’re close by or to the museum or the park. It is a fun way of winding down a cool weekend afternoon
- Take turns in picking events, venues, games movies, etc. to get everyone involved. A good family tradition considers the needs of every family member. This way the weekend traditions become more fun
- Always have the weekend planned ahead to get everyone prepared. It avoids inconveniencing others hence become more fulfilling and fun
- Have a budget as some activities will require significant spending. Doing so will not limit you on the fun activities you want to incorporate into your family weekend routine
- Be flexible; adjust your plan accordingly when and if needed. You will be able to accommodate the needs of others this way and make the weekend tradition activities more fun.
- Some events fit weekly, others bi-weekly, and other monthly
- Always make time for your plan. Your schedule may be tight but your routines are equally important
Read: Making Time for Yourself
Last Word!
Now that you have picked a few things to create your own weekend tradition, some things are key to note.
You need to be flexible and allow for emergencies. Be ready for any eventualities such as weather that may spoil your day plans. What is important is ensuring you make up for this time with another activity later in the day or some other time.
A good family tradition lets everyone have fun yet is accommodating of other things. When you cannot go outdoors, do fun indoor activities with your kids such as baking, crocheting, painting, dressing up, etc.
Also, you can change your plan any time when need be to allow for new developments.
Ensure you stick to your family traditions as close as you can to ensure that is well established and part of your family. You can even have a traditional name for your time together. In our family, we call weekends “family days”.
