How to Spend More Time With Your Kids During the Week

Weeknights are so incredibly tough for any kind of quality time with your family. Leaving work, fighting traffic, picking up the kids, making dinner (and in my case, fighting to get the toddler to eat dinner), cleaning up, and then putting the kids straight to bed before collapsing on the couch. It’s exhausting and it can make us feel like we’re selling our kids short some nights. I’ve made it a goal to try to spend more time with Travis doing more fun things rather than sitting at home watching movies. Here are a few ways that you, too, can learn how to spend more time with your kids during the week.

1. Plan ahead.

If you want to make time to spend with your kids, you have to plan ahead for it. Set aside one night each week to do something fun. Instead of going straight home, pick up the kids and head to the park, go out for dinner at a restaurant, or hit up Chuck E Cheese. It’s important to make the effort to do something special with your kids or else it more than likely won’t happen.

2. Prep slow cooker meals.

Cooking dinner right after we get home is one of the most time-consuming tasks. My Crockpot really helps save me time and allows me to spend more time with Travis, rather than cooking in the kitchen while he plays in the living room. Find some slow cooker meals you love and make those once or twice a week.

3. Get the kids to help you with chores.

When kids are young, it’s good to get them started on enjoying cleaning up. Helping out with laundry is one of Travis’s favorite things to do. Get them to help out with your chores and finish them together as a family or at least wait until they’ve gone to bed to start housework. Focus the time that they’re awake on them.

4. Move back bedtime.

Just one night each week, allow the kids to stay up a little bit later so that you can spend quality time together. (Although not so late that they aren’t able to get enough sleep.) For example, Travis’s bedtime is 8, but I’m not averse to letting him stay up until 830 or 845 as long as we’re doing something more than simply watching a movie.

5. Look up exciting events in your area.

I took Travis to a car show where a band that my friend and I love was playing and Travis had an absolute blast! It made our evening so much better being able to have fun at an event that was much different than staying in all evening. (I’m looking forward to daylight savings time so that we’ll have more daylight and will be able to do more after I pick him up!

6. Run errands on your lunch break.

I do my grocery shopping on nights that Travis is with his dad, but if I just have to run a quick errand, like buying diapers or getting gas, I’ll use my lunch break to do so. That way I’m not taking up extra time after work (and I’m not hauling a grumpy toddler around with me). I haven’t tried this yet, but many grocery stores also offer grocery pick-up–a service that allows you to do your grocery shopping online, then drive up to the store at your selected time and they’ll bring your groceries to your car. This is savior for busy working parents!

What are some of your tips for spending more time with your kids during the week?

The post How to Spend More Time With Your Kids During the Week appeared first on Chloe Social.