Family Time / Weekends

I haven't written a weekend-focused post in a while, so I thought I would, as a sort of follow up to some of the more temporally-oriented parts of my last post, as they connect to the comment thread over at SHU's. (What I took to be the gist of it is married mothers whose spouses are absent for various reasons [including the very legitimate work-related reasons!] leaving them alone with kids for long unscheduled hours at night and/or on weekends.  They are in practical terms 'parenting solo' but are not single parents.  Their situation is temporary.)

Like everything else, weekends change as kids age.  Mine are 17 and 9.  We are long past the nap phase.  We're also mostly past doing things 'as a family' most weekends, partly because of their ages and age discrepancy and partly because of the pandemic.  But mostly what changed is my expectation that weekends SHOULD involve family activity (which is to say, a large outing planned by mom!).   Here's what this weekend looked like:

I am always up by 7 to feed cats (if I don't wake up naturally, Tiny Boy gets me up, as this is his screen-start time.  I had some early migraine symptoms so took tylenol and imitrex, got a cup of coffee, got him some breakfast, went back to bed with a book.  LG slept until about 9, when I had Tiny Boy get off screens.  He'd also come down with what I assumed was a cold but what could be read as COVID.  LG required a TB test for EMT training course, so LG registered both kids online for urgent care (teens are great with online tasks!).  That was the morning.  Tiny Boy was COVID negative.  He still felt blah enough that he wasn't going to attend a friend's outdoor birthday party in the afternoon.  I left the kids at home and went to Whole Foods where, for the first time, there were more unmasked than masked individuals, which is the subject of another post.  Both kids helped unpack groceries; Tiny Boy continued his puttering which had now evolved into watching Bob Ross.  LG was doing whatever LG does in the bedroom (often a combo of crocheting/knitting, something on a screen, and reading for class).  At some point in the afternoon Tiny Boy felt okay enough to float around in the inflatable pool while I read outside.  At some point I went on enough short walks to get in my 10+K steps.  We had some local take out and watched Raya and the Last Dragon (all of us!  even LG!).  So, Saturday was very screen heavy.

Sunday we'd planned a beach day.  We go to a beach halfway between my mom's house and mine, so we could meet up.  It's a two-hour drive.  LG slept while Tiny Boy (who was feeling better) and I made a list and got our stuff ready.  When LG woke up, I had them order some lunch we could take to the beach; LG is an expert at ordering takeout.  Picked up the food, got gas, got on the highway.  Lost time due to our exit literally not existing due to construction and no detour sign.  Eventually we got to the beach by going south enough to turn back north.  UGH.  Lovely day at the beach!  LG mostly read inside a tent but the rest of us went on or near the water.  Ice cream from the concession stand.  Long drive home again due to rerouting.  At some point LG said "wait, you said we'd be home at six, why does the GPS say we'll be home at seven?"  Eventually it became clear that teen had tentative unspoken teen plans that were now spoken.  So we got home at 7, Tiny Boy and I ate leftovers while LG went out with friends.  LG got home at 9 when I was putting Tiny Boy to bed.  We talked a bit and I got in bed to crash.

So there was a lot of screens.  Also a fair amount of together time.  Not as much of the domestic chores as I would have liked to have done.  But this week Tiny Boy is at camp from 9-4, and LG is gone from 7 to 5, so I have the house mostly to myself.  It's pretty sweet, until I get the call from camp that says he's not feeling well come pick him up...

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Anyway....have questions or want me to talk about anything specific?  Comments thread, or gwinne (at) yahoo.