Empty weekend parenting There are plenty of families who have weekends so jam-packed there’s not a moment to spare. Then there are the families embracing ‘empty weekend parenting ’. As the name suggests, empty weekend parenting is about keeping your weekends, well, empty. Instead of rushing around trying to get kids to a combination of extra-curricular activities (football, ballet, swimming, climbing, you name it), alongside the inevitable double-bill birthday party, empty weekend parenting is about clearing the schedule and just seeing where the weekend takes you. After a busy week of school , childcare and work , it’s all about maintaining a relaxed, low-stress environment (well, as low-stress as is possible with kids) and focusing on family bonding with spontaneous activities or prioritising rest. Colin Drury has made a consistent point of keeping his weekends free with his kids. Writing for the i Paper, he said: “We wanted their weekends to be filled with something those clubs don’t necessarily provide: new experiences, variety and spontaneity.” He also noted they wanted to have the odd lie-in, too. (And hey, who can blame him?) This way of weekending has meant they’ve enjoyed the odd trip away, museum visits, woodland walks, bike rides, trips to farms, adventure playgrounds, you get the idea. But it has also meant “playing with cars on the living room floor, getting crafty with old toilet tube rolls, and having them do some weeding in the garden”. “And it has been fabulous,” he noted. My kids are under five so I’m yet to really feel the pressure of extra-curricular culture; however we’ve also made a concerted effort to deliberately keep weekends free over the years – and I have to say, after each chaotic week which usually ends in a big Friday meltdown from one or both children due to sheer exhaustion, I love that all of us can recharge during our empty weekends. Perhaps it is most suited to those with young children – as Drury noted, his children are both older now (five and seven) and have both developed a love of gymnastics, which led to him caving and booking them in on a Saturday morning. (Goodbye lie-ins.) Research by The University of Bath has found that kids who participate in extra-curricular activities gain confidence and build up their social skills – so it’s clearly important for development. Yet being overscheduled has also been linked to poor mental health in kids. As with everything, balance is key. Empty weekend parenting offers a more manageable schedule littered with lots of downtime and the ability to be bored (which, yes, is good for them ). Some parents find that sticking to one main activity per day strikes the right balance. With plenty of parents (mums especially) feeling depleted and burnt out , and Pinterest’s Parenting Trend Report highlighting rising interest in ‘slow motherhood’ and ‘slow parenting’ , an empty(ish) weekend every now and then surely wouldn’t go amiss. Related... I Thought My Job Would Prepare Me For Parenting Neurodivergent Children. It Didn't. I'm A Headteacher. We Need A Back-To-Basics Approach To Parenting The 'Strict' Parenting Rules That Experts Actually Stand By