Top 5 Stress-Free Weeknight Family Activities

Hello Moms!

Being a busy working professional, I often find that weeknights are a huge rush to get everyone picked up from school, fed, cleaned, and put to bed.  Work-life balance was leaving me with constant feelings of mom-guilt. Keep reading to learn how to make meaningful memories with your kids and stay organized on busy weeknights!

Weeknights are Crazy….

Let’s be honest.  It can be exhausting working during the day and then coming home and trying to get evening chores done while also spending quality time with the kids.  When the kids are younger, sometimes you have only a few hours after work until they must go to bed, so it’s key to be efficient with that time.  Now that our kids are older, we are also looking for easy activities to keep them off their screens so much as well. 

Here are our top 5 ways we calm the weeknight chaos and spend time making memories as a family:

Make Dinner a Family Affair

Having your kids involved in the meal planning and cooking can actually help create excitement to eat their meals and expand their palates.  We plan our weekly menu together and purchase weekly groceries on the weekend to save time during the week. 

Help kids read and understand the recipes to develop math and comprehension skills. Give them an opportunity to practice their kitchen skills through washing, chopping, and measuring ingredients. 

When enjoying the meal ask them if what ingredients they can taste, then talk about everyone’s day.  To avoid the infamous one-word answers, ask targeted question such as, “What was your favourite part of your day?” or “What made you laugh today?”  This helps to solidify the importance of healthy eating, communication, and table manners while at the table.

Doing Dishes Dance Party

When it’s time to clean up after dinner, throw on your favourite playlist and dance the dishes away!  Have your kids lip sync to their favourite tunes while parents are the “judges” giving out prizes for best air guitar solo, or most creative dance move.  This helps make the chore fun and less intimidating.

Go for a Walk

Some evenings, a walk is exactly what’s needed to release stress from the day.  A family walk around your neighbourhood can lead to great discussions, and it’s often when my kids will open up about something that is bothering them.  Sometimes, we’ll even do a little scavenger hunt where I will write lists of things for them to look out for on our walk.  I know my boys are a bit older, but they still love the thrill of the competition – and it ensures that they are remaining physically active along the way.

Play a Board Game

Our family loves a great board game!  Hasbro makes some wonderful family games including Candy Land, Monopoly, Sorry, Battleship, and Yahtzee!  Complete your game night by serving up some of your family’s favourite snacks and beverages. 

Playing games is important to childhood development because learning a new game helps practice skills like reading, math, and strategy.  It provides parents the opportunity to teach them how to play by the rules of the game and not to be a sore winner or loser. 

Being there to support them through processing their feelings and working through them together will build their confidence and navigate taking small risks.

Family Story Time

After a nice warm bubble bath, our kids enjoy snuggling up with blankets for a story.  We change up how we do story time regularly.  Sometimes we listen to podcasts such as the Vinyl Café or Car Talk.  Other times we’ll take turns reading pages of a book. 

The kids enjoy picking out books from the library to read as a family too – and there are some wonderful audio books available as well through the Libby App (with valid library card at a participating library). 

We’ll sometimes even host short family book club chats where we’ll ask thought-provoking questions about the stories we’re reading and offer predictions on situational outcomes.

Last but not least, don't forget to take a few minutes to relax and be proud of all that you've accomplished during the day. With multiple priorities, it's often challenging to take the time we need to re-charge so we can put our best selves forward for our kids. Always remember that Adventure Exists Everywhere, and that the small memories are just as important to our kids as the big ones.

What does your family do to make memories on busy weeknights? In the spirit of idea-sharing, leave us a comment below to let us know!

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