What does sunday cost you.

moonstone

Mon, Dec 12 2016, 12:35 pm

I have lived in Israel for many years, but will never stop missing Sundays! Yes, we have Fridays off, but it's not the same at all. I would love to stay up late Saturday night knowing that I can sleep late the next day, then laze around or do errands or housework or go have fun without having to prepare for shabbat, get home in time for shabbat, worry about everything closing early for shabbat, etc. I would much rather work on Fridays, even though it would mean more pressure preparing for Shabbat, and have Sundays off.

It looked like the government was going to give us 6 Sundays off per year, but that bill has stalled, so who knows when or if it'll ever happen. Sad

amother

Burlywood

Mon, Dec 12 2016, 12:49 pm

Not much.
Im a "younger generation mommmy", in my 20s...got a 6 yr old and 4 yr old who both hate being bored, but are learning to appreciate how to "just chill"
We read, color, arts and crafts, imaginative play etc, sometimes bake. ...we LOVE sundays!
I work full time so sometimes we do errands, but we try not to let that take over the day.

I specifically do not "go out and do something/buy something" every week because I dont want them growing up feeling like thats what they need to be happy

amother

Black

Mon, Dec 12 2016, 12:56 pm

Some Sundays we have a lot of events - birthday parties, community events, etc.

Others, we have a "chill" day - but that usually means trips to the park, a hike, bike ride.

Typically, DH and I do have errands to do - grocery shopping for the week, organizing in the house, buying shoes for the kids, etc. So we do a combo of events, errands and "chill time." Also, the older kids spend an hour or two on homework.

My kids don't do well with just a whole day of "chill", so we set a loose schedule for the day, try to make sure everyone gets out of the house at least once, even if just for a walk. That way, they do have unstructured time, but it's in chunks of 2-3 hours, and not one whole long day. Unless they have come up with something and are having a great time, so I just let them play while DH and I take turns doing the errands.

Chill time is easier for my older kids, who all like to read or work on their play "projects" like building forts. It's harder for the preschool set.

Sometimes we will do outings to museums, bowling, etc, but I try to do those on bad weather days since they are costly. We got a local zoo membership which entitles us to discounts at other museum type places.

amother

Natural

Mon, Dec 12 2016, 3:02 pm

When people write they do crafts at home that does cost - you had to buy the supplies sometimes.

My boys have school on Sundays. But have a half day at least 1 - 2 times per month and I try to do a fun family outing, but it doesn't have to cost a lot. I find going out as a family re-energizes all of us, DH and I don't have time for date nights and I find family outings give us the same infusion that we are all just spending time together.

I have a lot of really fun,education,entertaining places that are free or are minimal cost for a family our size.
In the fall winter we do activities like raking, BBQ, walking on the boardwalk, biking around the lake, family walks, visit interesting parks that are a bit of a drive - it is nice to go out and have a change of scenery.
Over the past few weeks we visited a hands on grist mill and a small old fashioned zoo, both free of charge. There are lots of attractions that don't cost. We also did a corn maze and picked apples that did cost.
Sometimes we'll go to an arcade and everyone will get $5. Its on the boardwalk so once the money is spent we can go for a walk near the ocean. I love it in the winter.
And sometimes I spend more but I feel its worth it. Our big splurges in the winter are snow tubing, hershey (get discount tickets), etc. We don't do anything for winter break so we do some larger trips on Sundays.
Another of my kids favorite activity is to play an intense family board game.

I find people who say they don't do anything on Sundays typically will let their kids play video games or movies (not everybody). When that isn't an option I feel I have to put in more effort.

shabbatiscoming

Mon, Dec 12 2016, 3:36 pm

rikki 1 wrote:

And yeah, tell me my kids should chill, they did that all Friday/shabbos already, by Sunday they're raring to go and they don't come along doing errands with me nicely.

But shabbat is so different than sunday, even if there is no school. There are things one can do on sunday, still chilling, that cant be done on shabbat.

amother

Natural

Mon, Dec 12 2016, 3:41 pm

What do you do to chill?

Lets say my kids are up at 7. boys are out to school by 8:00 - home by 2:00 (on short Sundays).

What can my girls do from 7 - 2?
We eat breakfast, daven, color, bake, jump rope, play a board game, Build with lego, color with chalk (probably with a friend over), call our bubby, go for a walk, go grocery shopping, prepare lunch, eat lunch, clean a closet, rake some leaves. That is maybe 6 hours. There is still an entire day ahead.

I sit at a desk 40 hours a week. DH sits in his car 15 hours\week commuting besides for his work time. We both want to do something - and its so great when includes the entire family.

MMCH

Mon, Dec 12 2016, 9:23 pm

I used to be the kind of parent that ran to go do something every single sunday with my kids bc I couldnt stand the lack of structure.
after years of my dh complaining about not having a day to just 'chill' we havent been so active.
my big girls take some sort of 'lesson' now they are both doing swimming. so thats knocks out the whole morning.
we have been staying in a lot more, usually with a playdate or some nieghbors, sometimes well go to cousins.

I dont do well without structure. so in addition to my kids getting antsy, I get annpyed as well.
I also cannot deal with an entire of day of begging to watch and play on electronics.
our 'chill day' is shabbos.

Chayalle

Tue, Dec 13 2016, 9:54 am

I didn't read the whole thread but it sounded to me like the OP's post might have been more about herself and her need to get out on Sunday. Being with three small children all day, her options of where to go are limited, so she ends up going to a store and spending on the kids, something that then keeps them busy so she can chill a bit after getting out.

Do you have any friends you can get together with on a Sunday? When my girls were little, I would get together with a friend and her kids, and we'd have each other for company while they played. We sometimes alternated getting together at each others homes, and did lunch together.