Saturday, February 23, 2008

A Saturday in the Life

One of my favorite childfree books, Baby Not On Board, has a great little section called "A Saturday in the Life," which compares a childfree person's typical Saturday to that of a childed person's. The childfree Saturday sounded surprisingly like one of my own. So just for kicks, I thought I'd post what I did (and am doing) today in lieu of playing Mr. Potato Head and running to Costco for more mini corn dogs. Feel free to tell me how you spent your childfree Saturdays, as well!

8 A.M.: Get up. Husband is still sleeping (he is NOT an early weekend riser.) Greet the cat, who follows me downstairs. Pour out some nice Kashi cereal and soymilk for myself and some kitty treats for her.

8:15 A.M.: Settle down in the living room with breakfast. All is quiet. Happily curl up, eat my cereal and finish the book I've been reading.

10 A.M.: Watch two episodes of South Park. Now that is what I call a Saturday morning cartoon!

11 A.M.: Husband wakes up. We sit together and talk for a bit while he opens some mail we got this week.

11:30 A.M.: Head upstairs to update my iPod. We went to a Foo Fighters concert on Tuesday night, so I'm super into them right now. I hit the iTunes store and use some of that nice extra disposable income to fill in all the holes in my Foo collection.

12 P.M.: iPod loaded, it's time to go out for a run. I do two miles downtown and back along the Hudson River, music blasting in my ears.

12:45 P.M.: Back home. Fix lunch (a veggie burger, yogurt and fruit.) Sit with my husband while he watches UFC Unleashed from the DVR. Laugh at it.

1:30 P.M.: Take a shower and take my sweet time doing a body scrub, pedicure, and all those things I don't have time for during the week. Gotta look good to go out tonight!

2:30 P.M.: Interrupt my husband to ask if he's interested in some post-shower fun. He is. Head upstairs.

3:15 P.M.: Get dressed.

3:30 P.M.: Time to get serious. Where are we having dinner tonight? We've got a band of five (childfree, of course) friends to go to dinner and drinks with, and it's up to us to make the reservations. We settle on a fabulous wine bar in Soho that also serves food and call everyone to let them know.

4:15 P.M.: Upstairs for some more quiet time while my husband plays video games. Right now, it's 4:25 and I'm just about done with this blog entry. After that, I plan to do a few things around the house and then...

7 P.M.: Meet our friends for dinner. Enjoy yummy grown-up food and tasting flights of local wine. After dinner, we'll no doubt end up at one of several very good bars in the area. Who knows how late we'll be out?

So in conclusion... yeah, childfree Saturdays are pretty much awesome. I'll take my day in a heartbeat over getting up with some screamy kid, getting him dressed, playing with him all day and cutting up hot dogs for his lunch. No thank you.

10 comments:

Allyson said...

My Saturdays are always pretty variable. Either I'm spending the day doing homework (like today), spending time with family, or doing absolutely nothing with my long-distance fiance. Of course, once I finish grad school in May, get married in June, and then move 1,000 miles away from my childhood home in July, I think things are going to get a bit more lazy on a regular basis.

But I'd take a homework-filled weekend over a baby-filled weekend anytime.

Ashley the Historian said...

I do homework basically every Saturday...I'm hoping that will change once I've graduated with my Master's degree (in May!!!!!), but I still probably won't get to spend lots of time with my husband on Saturdays, since he's a chef and as long as he's in this career field, he will most likely work every Saturday. Sundays are generally our days together to do fun stuff like shopping and eating out (money-permitting). But his job also trips us up on that front, since the restaurant where he works now offers brunch on Sundays. Can you tell I hate his job, haha? When we actually do have time together to spend as a childfree couple, we like going to museums and trying new restaurants.

Allyson said...

Ashley, what are you studying? I'm getting my M.A. in English from Case Western Reserve University. I can't wait to graduate, either.

Ashley the Historian said...

Allyson, I'm getting an M.A. in Applied History from a small state school in PA. Part of me is dreading the job hunt, but the other part is excited. I'm hoping to work in a museum, most likely as a curator (I'm doing an internship for my program and I'm learning about artifact conservation, but historical research is my primary area of expertise).

Feh23 said...

My Saturdays are pretty variable...but they never start until at least 10am. This Saturday I got up around 10, made some coffee and read a magazine. BF got up at 11 and made bacon and eggs. We tidied up for our Oscar party on Sunday. Then we lazed around until 4 when we went out to the roller rink and set up for a roller derby bout that night. I mascotted for my team, drank some adult beverages and helped tear down the production. Then we went out to see an awesome band and enjoy some adult beverages with our derby buddies. We got home at 1:30am.

Unknown said...

My Saturdays don't start until 10 a.m. Sometimes I spend them making my house look nice and experimenting with new recipes. Other times I spend them shopping and exploring and generally doing whatever I want in NYC. Either way, kids do not figure into it.
And by the way, that wine bar you mentioned sounds GREAT!

Mo said...

I spent this last Saturday going from coffee shop to cafe to coffee shop while studying the bones of the cranium. It was fantastic!

Tina said...

So this is my first public blog on being childfree...should have been doing this the entire time. First, I have to say the decision to be a childfree couple has been an interesting one, since my husband and I are plopped right in the middle of bible belt Kansas. I just finished my master's in American History, my husband has just returned as well...we absolutely love our life with 3 furry children, and can't imagine all the drama, stress, and chaos that comes with being a parent. Too many reasons to even list!! My last saturday night was spent watching UFC (yeah! yeah!) with very Mommy and Daddy types (all our friends have kids, yuck!) Followed by a late night movie (Spiderwick..how great!) Then late night reruns of Family Guy and South Park (such fans!) But overall, I guess knowing there are other childfree couples out there fills me with some sense of validation that I can't explain. So thanks everyone for being together in the childfree lifestyle!

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Childfreeeee said...

Great post. Doing whatever you want to do on the weekends is one of the greatest things about being CF. I would never trade my weekends for the weekends of my childed friends and family - running around like headless chickens. My favorite thing to do on the weekends which I know my CF friends and family are not able to do is NAP! Nothing like dozing off for a good snooze and then waking up all rested and playing the rest of the day by ear! (BTW, feel free to link to my blog on your blogroll). http://childfreedom.blogspot.com/