How to Plan Weekly Adventures

I just listened to a great podcast where they advise working moms to “plan weekly adventures” and I thought this would be a great discussion both here and online. Corporal Mothers. How do you plan weekly adventures? How have plans and adventures changed throughout your life – for example, the bachelor’s plan, the couple’s plans, the mother’s plan of the younger children, the mother’s plan of the older children, the empty nester plan?

Podcast is a podcast where readers turn me on, best of both worlds. If you’re not familiar with the podcast, it’s hosted by Laura Vanderkam, author of the book: I Know How You Do and Sarah Hart-Unger, a mother of five and GP, blogger, and mother of three. As Vanderkam’s website states, they discuss “work/life balance, career advancement, parenting, time management, productivity, and making time for fun.”

This 11 April 2023 episode Pediatric endocrinologist Rachana Shah talks about the rule she set during the pandemic: one big adventure (it will take a few hours) and one small adventure will only last about an hour.

(If you don’t have time for the entire podcast, you can check out these 3 minutes. youtube video – recounts some of his little adventures checking out a new local swimming pool, checking out a new cafe, or more – and many of his bigger adventures were things like camping, which were completely new to his family.)

This is definitely something I’ve always struggled with – I have to fight my urges to nest or work.

Readers, how are you: when you think of weekly adventures, big and small, what do you think of? What do you do when you’re in a rush? How have the adventures changed in the seasons of your life?

How Have I Planned Weekly Adventures My Life?

My Single Years

I was basically single until I met my husband at 30, so I had a lot of time with just myself to plan weekly adventures. I remember very well that during my law school years, I worked almost without a step, but forced myself to take Friday afternoons and evenings off. Most of my good friends from law school were in my study groups or other places where I spent a lot of time like law study, so I wasn’t too stressed about being social – instead I would usually go shopping, review a few. different points (eg luxury mall, outlet mall, discount stores like TJ Maxx, etc.). Not thinking of anything legal to myself—and just walking around and touching pretty clothes—was invaluable at that point in my life.

I also worked a lot during my law office years, and often continued to work on the weekends as well. (I think I wrote about how I see going to the office on Sunday as a “super Monday” because I can do so much.) Unlike law school, I didn’t always feel like we were working together. good friends, so I tried to make plans in advance for Friday and Saturday night to see my friends, this usually includes choosing a new restaurant, bar or going to a play or gallery or something like that.

(Looking back, I wish I was more adventurous, especially with exercise – it would be great to try a new type of exercise class (cardio drum! aerial yoga!) or activity every weekend.)

Joining Years

When I met my husband, we still loved checking out new restaurants and bars, but we also started cooking a lot more and doing more couple-type things like date night with friends – it worked out well that some of my best girlfriends met their future husbands at roughly the same time.

Years with Little Kids

When my first son was born, everything changed dramatically – we would often take him with us to new restaurants (and we enjoyed watching him try new things) – but other things started to come into the mix: checking out the new pop-up pool, a new playground. or a splash area, a more kid-friendly museum, zoo or aquarium, etc.

I was generally good at planning such family adventures until the pandemic (whee) came – we were/were some of the most cautious people we know against COVID (primarily to help protect some family members), so the urge to spend weekends in our pajamas, screens-infused it really got a bit boring for us!

Ever since we’ve been back there, we’ve been trying to have little adventures like trying new kinds of food, going to local exhibitions, or going on kid-friendly excursions. Some are total jerks where we say “huh, well, we tried”, others are hits that introduce us to new favorite activities.

My Top Tips for Planning Adventures

You Should Plan This

As you can probably tell from the above, I’m not the best at it – but if I’ve learned one thing, it’s that I’ll say that spontaneity didn’t work for me and adventures. (There it was then I spontaneously took my 4-year-old son on a helicopter ride, but, uh, I’m not sure that’s the best example.)

For me, now is the time to think about what adventures we want over the summer – canoeing, seeing exhibits, boating – all of which can be planned well in advance because we are often subject to availability and/or need to have it. reservation.

Things I struggle with, “oh, let’s take a walk somewhere new!” or “Let’s look at an area of ​​the city that is new to us!” – anything that requires research often causes us to never go.

My Spreadsheet Idea

(Always a great day spreadsheetam i right?)

Something I’m going to try this summer is to put a bunch of ideas (from all of us) in a spreadsheet, print it out and break it up into small chunks, and then put them in a jar so we can choose. one each weekend Including different places to check out (such as hiking or exploring) that might fall by the wayside if left on its own.

(I guess I’ll have to grab a jar for winter activities and a jar for summer… hmmn.)

Readers, how are you: when you think of weekly adventures, big and small, what do you think of? What do you do when you’re in a rush? How have the adventures changed in the seasons of your life? (Who is the person in your home who usually plans these adventures?)

(If you distinguish you on the weekend vs you on the weekdayHow do your adventures fit into these people?)

stock photo through stencil.