Living For The Week: TGIT (Thank Goodness It’s Today)

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T.G.I.F.

We have all heard it. We have all said it. Famous musicians have sung about it. There is a restaurant named after it. And even a popular TV lineup of the same name on ABC from 1988-2000. Culturally, we are trained to “just get through the week” until that magical day, Friday, saves us. But then we had kids. And while I still find myself excited about the upcoming weekend, I have realized that Friday no longer holds that promise of relaxation and freedom. Friday now, in some ways, represents the start of the crazy as opposed to the end of it.

planning things to look forward to all month

“TGIT — Thank Goodness It’s Today!”

A few weeks ago, I was scrolling through Facebook and a pretty generic meme about living for the weekend stopped me in my tracks. It is true that weekends are not the same as they used to be.  However, I do still look forward to the extra time with my family and friends. What really struck me was this idea that we spend the majority of our week, and therefore our life, wishing to speed things up and skip time.

I don’t want to live for the weekend anymore. Of course, I want to enjoy my weekend, but I don’t want time to move any faster. And I certainly don’t want to dread a day just because I have to go to work or do my normal daily routine. I want to live for the week. All of it. In my pursuit of that goal, I have come up with a few tips to enjoy your week more.

Make a Different Day Special

Why save all of the fun for the weekend? Living for the week means spreading the wealth. This could mean family game nights on Wednesdays or always going out for a special treat with your kids after dance class on Tuesdays. Create a tradition that is fun for you (not extra work) and if the tradition stops working as your family’s schedule changes, pick a new one. This is also an opportunity to make your life easier. Girl Scout nights are insane for me, so I started picking up dinner every Monday there was a Girl Scout meeting. It made me look forward to those Mondays a lot more because I got a night off from cooking and it became a fun tradition with my kids. 

Do Something For Yourself

Fitting in my workouts is challenging and I was relying on weekend days to get in my favorite classes/activities. But then I became a soccer mom and my weekends were taken over with games that sometimes start as early as 8:30am and never stop. So, in the spirit of living for the week, I started looking for weekday workout options that I am excited about and even look forward to doing.

Exercise may not be your thing, but what can you add to your week that will help you look forward to other days? Is it treating yourself to your favorite caffeinated drink every Tuesday, when you make coffee at home the other days? Maybe it is taking your lunch hour to get a manicure on Thursdays. It can be as simple as saving a particularly good book, magazine or show to read/watch during the week. Or making your commute more enjoyable with a fun podcast that is saved for weekday listening. I have a favorite weekly podcast that I will only listen to on my Tuesday morning runs. I never allow myself to listen to it at another time. It is a little thing, but it does make me look forward to Tuesday mornings (and even those runs).

Girl Time

I don’t see my husband much during the week because of his long work hours and both of our crazy schedules. Therefore, I am hesitant to schedule girlfriend only time on the weekend. In the past, I struggled with when to see my friends because I felt badly about leaving my kids during the week. This was probably the first living for the week change I made. I started scheduling regular time with my friends during the week. I used to play bi-weekly games of mahj jong on Thursday nights. Now I am in a Wednesday night book club (every other month). Those regular events are among my favorite days of any given month. My kids are fine without me for a night and I am a better person, a better mother, and get to enjoy more of my week by having that time.

I recognize that for those of us with partners who travel or work long hours, hiring a babysitter is a luxury. However, there are other ways to do this. If your friends don’t need babysitters, host them at your house after your kids are in bed. Schedule a phone date with a good friend. Having that time with our female friends can be a highlight of any week.

Change It Up

I realize that I have been preaching creating a new routine, but I also believe that part of the challenge with living for the week is the monotony surrounding routine. Enjoying life means making it fun and sometimes that entails spontaneity (or in my case, planned spontaneity).

There is nothing that prevents us from making dinner a little different by having a picnic. I don’t love eating outside, so we picnic on the family room floor. This could also mean an after school park trip, or sundae party. I like to take advantage of those free days at ice cream shops and donut stores, etc. as an easy special event. My kids enjoy an evening family walk. Honestly, when they suggest it, I usually feel so overwhelmed with making lunches and dinner and just general exhaustion that I don’t want to do it. But when I say yes, I end up really enjoying that extra time together. 

There are also opportunities for mid-week adult fun. When a silly, light Mom movie comes out, my friends and I try to go on a weeknight as a special treat to ourselves. I also have friends who take advantage of an occasional mid-week date night or even weekday date afternoon.

A Caveat

Every day is not going to be fun. Every week is not going to be great. There will be days you will want to end or even skip. There will also be fun weekend things to look forward to that will have you living for the weekend. This advice is not intended to imply that you should enjoy every moment of life. In fact, my biggest pet peeve is when people tell me to “enjoy every moment because time moves too quickly.” It is impossible to enjoy every moment–many moments are not enjoyable, especially with young children.

The intention behind living for the week is to set ourselves up to create a life we enjoy as much as possible. To remind ourselves that there are little things that can make our days that much better. With the hope that we will start to wake up more often with the thought, “TGIT — Thank Goodness It’s Today!”