Andrew is in daycare Monday - Friday from 7:30ish until 5:00 or 5:30. On those days he gets plenty of interaction - play time, learning time, outings to the park and walks around the neighborhood. I feel like on those days he is doing plenty.
On the weekends it's kind of a free-for-all. Sometimes we have things planned, like this weekend when I took him to the farmer's market and we had plans with friends to go watch football and let the kids play. Other times there isn't much going on and we spend a lot of time around the house. It's weekends like that that make me wonder - are we doing enough?
I read about/talk to these other moms that have a seemingly endless schedule of play-dates, classes and special outings planned for their kids. I know some of them are stay at home moms so their kids aren't in daycare all day so maybe that has something to do with it. Andrew doesn't seem unhappy or all that stir crazy when we are home. He does well when we go places, but we haven't felt the need to constantly be on the go when we have time with him.
Are we doing him a disservice by not getting him more involved? Should I be setting up a play-date for him over the weekend? Making sure we take him out to at least one outing a week? Signing him up for classes?
I know as he gets older he will benefit from more structure, but I feel like right now he is at the age where he easily entertains himself but doesn't have the attention span for structured classes.
As evidence - he spent quite a bit of time playing in the puddles left over from us washing our cars yesterday:
So what about you? Do you have regular play-dates and outings to keep your little one occupied? Or are you more fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants schedulers like us??
We signed Elisabeth up for Little Gym. We go every Saturday at 8:15. She LOVES it.
ReplyDeleteThat's one of the things I've thought about doing. I may need to really look into it.
DeleteWe do classes 3 days a week. Henry gets super crabby if we don't get out of the house, so it's sort of a must. But I'm not sure we would do anything if I didn't SAH.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think if I stayed at home I would definitely be doing some sort of classes. Since I only get the weekends with him I feel like I want him to ourselves instead of out to playdates and stuff all the time, but that may change as he gets older.
DeleteMeh. We don't really do play dates etc. I pick her up at 5:30 and she's asleep by 7:30 M-F so I'm pretty selfish with my weekend time. Plus, I think the whole purpose of playdates is so kids with SAHMs get interaction with other kids. Andrew gets plenty of that at day care! You are doing good momma! Enjoy that boy on the weekend!
ReplyDeleteExactly - we get from 5:30 - 8:00 with him on weeknights so I am selfish with our weekends. Glad I'm not alone! :)
DeleteI stay at home, but we do My Gym and Kindermusik. Kindermusik was gifted to us for Ethan's birthday, and I'm not sure we will rejoin. I also do Stroller Strides (it's an exercise program) so we have that some mornings. We do tot school classes, too. But Ethan's not in daycare to interact with other kids, so we do that interaction through playdates and classes. You're doing just fine! We don't do anything structured on our weekends, either!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I think if I stayed at home I would probably do the same. Glad to hear that your weekends are like ours :)
DeleteSince I SAH I make sure we get out of the house every morning to do something. But that could be going to the grocery store or park. I am part of a group of moms that have a playgroup every Friday. We generally go, but sometimes not since Friday is my day off of nannying and I often use it for errands.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't worry about Andrew. He is around kids all the time during the week and as long as he is happy being at home, who cares.
Thanks Megan! He does seem perfectly happy on weekends whether we get out or not so I guess I should stop over analyzing everything :)
DeleteMy daughter is in daycare and gets a lot of activity there. I did a six-week tumbling class with her and a six-week swimming class. We'll probably do swimming again in the winter. I think she gets plenty of activity at daycare, but I enjoy things with her, too. Our playdates consist of seeing her cousins. Otherwise, I don't really want to over schedule ourselves. I think you're doing plenty with him!
ReplyDeleteWe're thinking of signing him up for a swimming class this winter as well. And you're right, I don't want to over schedule, either.
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