Figuring Out What To Do With the Kids

A few months ago I was chit chatting at a birthday party, lamenting over the guilt I feel for passing on the majority of party invitations we receive.  Between visiting grandparents, the cabin, weekend road trips, and well, life, we tend not to accept unless the child is a very close friend of our boys.  Another parent responded "Oh, we make sure to go to as many parties as we can.  That way, we don't have to figure out what to do with the kids."  At that moment, I realized (for the first time) that in some families children on the weekends are considered a logistical problem are solved with sports activities and birthday parties.

For us, the question is more "What are we going to do together this weekend?"  What have we been itching to do?  Is there a place to visit or a food we're craving? We throw out ideas and try to make sure there's something for everyone.  Sometimes that works and sometimes I play dictator, but we are almost always doing something together.  One morning we joined a group of school families at the SF/Marin Food Bank, where we got a solid 3 hour shift of work out of each of the boys.

Afterwards I took advantage of the food bank's proximity to my favorite plant nursery, Flora Grubb Gardens, and bribed the boys to behave with hot chocolate and a latte from Ritual Coffee.

For lunch we walked to All Good Pizza to dine al fresco.  We stumbled upon 3 weenie sculptures-- how fitting.

San Francisco Unified observes Chinese New Year as an official school holiday, and normally this school closing is a childcare conundrum, I happened to be part-time funemployed.  (That's having fun and living it up while unemployed.)  What better way to observe Chinese New Year than with a trip to Chinatown?  If we were gonna be tourists, we figure we might was well ride the cable cars there.

The boys were treated to lunch at the Oriental Pearl followed by tchotchke shopping.  We scored a stuffed poop emoji, a head massager, and a stuffed boxing glove on a spring mounted on a stick (for Anders).

This past weekend we returned to our newfound past-time: thoroughbred horse racing.  We're not fans of most mainstream spectator sports-- I'm over high ticket prices and over-priced concessions, and quite frankly I have the attention span a 6 year old. A day at the track is predictably paced and fascinating in all of its traditions and rules.  There's graceful pageantry contrasted with amazing physical power.  With multiple races throughout the day and a clear winner decided in mere minutes, horse racing is the perfect spectator sport for me.

But wait, there's more! Golden Gate Fields is situated right on the bay, with perfect weather and views, and every Sunday is $1 day. You can get $1 parking and $1 admission, and there's mimosas, beers, hot dogs, and sodas for (you guessed it)-- $1!  We love setting aside a small pot and putting down bets on every race we watch to add to the excitement.  Little Linus is quite lucky at picking the winners.

There will come a time when our kids will choose how they spend their free time, be it sports, or a job, or some other thing that brings them joy.  For now, we prioritize doing things that engages every member of the family, even if it means keeping the boys out of traditional "kids activities." This way, everyone's a winner.