When weekends work

You know when you have high hopes for a weekend and it doesn’t go according to plan? You end up bickering, drowning in piles of laundry, rushing around the supermarket and feeling intensely jealous of all the other families Getting It Right on Instagram?

Yeah. That’s often us.

This weekend, however, was different. This weekend we actually became one of those families to Get It Right. For the first time in a long time I didn’t suffer one single bout of Weekendvy, as I was far too busy enjoying myself and relaxing. 

After a lengthy chat on Saturday morning with my husband about making more time for each other and, generally, just making more of an effort, we decided to head to the seaside and spend the afternoon together as a family in the sun. Just getting outside and being nice to each other proved to be hugely liberating.

We ate ice-cream, walked along the sand and collected shells. At nearly-four years old Frog was in her element jumping on a bouncy castle by the beach and going on one of those scary trampoline things that require a safety harness. We also found a park complete with water-play fountains – it didn’t take Frog long to strip off into her undies and get soaking wet.

Yesterday we headed inland to Dartmoor to discover a bit more of what’s on our doorstep. Work and a regular stream of busy weekends has meant we haven’t been able to get out much and explore where we now live in South Devon, but we made up for it with a day on the beach and a day on Dartmoor.

We sat by the river at Dartmeet, drinking tea, eating ice lollies and chatting. Frog and her dad spent some time jumping over the huge boulders in the river and, again, it wasn’t long before our three year old had stripped off and was splashing about in the shallows completely starkers.

For the first time in a long time the (self-proclaimed) Northern Love Machine and I spent some proper time together, just the two of us, in the evenings. I put away my laptop and he ignored his computer. We settled down to a film with a big bowl of popcorn and actually watched it together instead of one of us falling asleep or being distracted by their phone.

This weekend turned out to be one of those weekends that worked. We didn’t make any major plans for it, but things fell into place. It was a good reminder that we all enjoy each others’ company and live somewhere pretty bloody beautiful.

Lest you should think it was all sunshine and laughter though, it is currently raining here and I’m staring at a basketful of sodden washing while the NLM grumbles about coursework marking and lesson planning. Real life beckons.

Still, the break was good while it lasted.

What did you get up to?