In the intro to every episode of Best of Both Worlds, Sarah and I promise to talk about “how real women manage work, family, and time for fun.” Since one of my goals for 2021 was to have more fun, we decided to devote an entire episode to the topic.
Having fun is certainly more challenging during a pandemic that has many of us staying home much of the time. But it’s not impossible. Now, more than ever, fun takes work. It takes foresight and planning. Logistics are involved. Even stuff that might have been spontaneous in the past (“let’s go to the zoo!” on a Saturday) often requires timed reservations.
If we can make our peace with the idea that fun takes work, though, more fun can be available. So I think it’s a trade off worth making.
We talk about recent genuinely enjoyable activities (for Sarah — an outdoor playdate; for me — a solo trip to an art museum) and how to carve out time for more fun. Then in the listener question, we talk about work-from-home lunch inspiration. Lately I’ve been sautéing veggies and chicken sausage. Or, of course, there’s always leftovers. If they’re good leftovers this can be fun too!
Please give the episode a listen and we’d appreciate if you’d leave us a rating or review wherever you listen to podcasts!
We went to the Barnes museum when we were in the Philly area for a wedding about 5 years ago and were so impressed. It is amazingly curated and every room was just amazing, especially for someone like me who loves impressionists.
Things we are doing for fun center around our toddler. We have done a lot of sledding and he’s very into board games which I love to play with him. It’s been horribly cold here, highs below 0 for many days, so I can’t wait for the warm up this weekend. I find that our toddler is way harder to manage when we can’t get outside! There isn’t much fun happening outside that since we are in the newborn phase but I look forward to summer when we can see people outdoors and go for walks, etc.
Hi Laura! I really enjoyed this episode- it’s fun to think about fun! I love your intentional approach to it. I have been frustrated on some of my weekends lately by not being able to do things I want to do because of the other family members planning or lack thereof. I need to start planning my weekends better AND telling the family that for instance Saturday from 12-2 we will be going sledding or whatever.
I don’t think of myself as an outdoorsy kind of person at all but usually the highlight of my weekends is outdoor activities. So I need to make sure these happen.
A little late to comment but I just wanted to pipe in with an idea for dates with your spouse—my husband and I have been taking a Thursday and Friday off every other month or so since before the pandemic. We do some errands (Costco on a weekday morning feels luxurious), get lunch (takeout in these times), do some stuff around the house, and also do fun stuff like watch a movie, talk to each other without interruptions, etc. it ticks so many boxes for me, including making me feel much less overwhelmed the rest of the time. And when stuff starts to pile up I remind myself there are a couple of days off coming up soon, and it gives me something to look forward to, which I especially appreciate these days. We are lucky to have full time childcare at a daycare, so our daughter is out of the house and that makes things easier.
In some ways it can be easier to make last-minute plans with friends during the pandemic because no one is really busy. At least most outdoor stuff (walking, running, snowshoeing) doesn’t require timed tickets where I am. I also try to reframe planning for fun and anticipate the fun I’ll have.