Forgetting the pandemic, do you get excited for weekends anymore?
I feel like I used to be absolutely flying into my days off. Nowadays, 36, I barely seem to care. Sure, I am glad that I don’t have to be at work for two days. I also seem to have so much other stuff to do that it doesn’t even feel like time off. At least one day is taken up by grocery shopping, laundry, meal prep for the week, and errands. If I am lucky I get out for a few hours on a walk and then that’s it. Sunday night doldrums and resume the deathward march.
I don’t even have kids. I imagine for those with kids it could be much worse. Or is it better because they make the all the domestic duties and errands seem worthwhile?
I have been volunteering a few hours per week and that seems to lift the mood a bit but it doesn’t really last.
Am I depressed? Do I just hate my job? Is it because I only get two weeks of vacation a year?
Or is it relatively common to feel this way as routine and responsibility take over our free time?
16 comments
Yep! I’m 38 and my partner and I live near a major metropolitan area. Pre-COVID we’d often go out for dinner at a new place, maybe spend Friday night watching movies and doing things like taking the dogs for walks or go to an event/concert.
The thing with weekends (and life in general) is that we’re all kinda tired, especially as we get older. If you use that as an excuse to not do anything new or interesting, life will just pass you by as you’re running errands.
It’s also funny how much time cleaning can take out of your life. We typically hire a cleaning person once a week to do a lot of the major cleaning which frees up the 3-4 hours of time/energy for us to go do something we want to do and enjoy life.
I think you’re just in a rut and trying to figure out what to do, a lot of us end up there. Also, 2 weeks vacation is tough, I’d definitely be hunting for a job with anything less than 18-20 days to start. Two weeks is barely enough time to exist!
Surprisingly I do, despite the fact that since the pandemic started, the only difference between my weekend days and my weekdays is that on my weekend days I don’t have to work. I even end up feeling bored and shiftless a good deal over the weekend, especially on Sunday afternoon, yet I still begin looking forward to the next weekend as soon as the workweek starts.
I love my weekends and having kids makes them so much better. Always so much going on and running around is fun.
I’m a large introvert – so I look forward to the weekends just so I don’t have to see anyone.
I’m only off one weekend a month, so yeah, it’s good to have those two days off together.
I don’t find work as exhausting as school was, plus my nights are mine during the week (as in not studying) so the weekend is less a thing for me as an adult, but i do like them
Yes I do… I work to eat, it’s not my passion. Even stuck at home I enjoy sleeping in a little and busying myself with things that interest or nourish me vs. earning a check. Time is precious, find a way to make those free hours count.
Two weeks of vacation is a joke in today’s office jobs. Take a week off and that week’s work is still there, waiting to be done, and now it’s late. Taking time off means coming back to annoyed colleagues because your work isn’t done and then having to work twice as long for the next week to get caught up.
Companies today run the absolute bare minimum of personnel to get the work done. No one has time to do someone else’s work in addition to their own. I am old enough to remember when offices were adequately staffed and people could actually take vacations…and lunch breaks.
That’s my take on it, anyway, based on what I do. Somewhere along with way, I stopped looking forward to the weekends. Weekends can seem promising on Friday afternoons but once the household chores are done and family obligations are met, it’s Monday morning again.
I didn’t as much, mostly because most of my social engagements happened during the week, evenings after work. Weekends were always harder to fill. The regular dance classes were during the week, and my friends were often busy doing things with their families on weekends.
There would be one special dance party each month on a Saturday, and occasionally a dinner get together at someone’s house. Of course, being dancers it always turned into a dance party.
There’s a lot less to look forward to on the weekends lately. On the upside, I’ve been discovering more of the outdoors in my area. So when social dancing starts up again, hopefully I won’t be quite as bored on weekends without dancing.
Yes but somehow Monday is always hanging over them like a black cloud.
Absolutely, all I care about is getting to the weekend. Come Sunday evening though I get that feeling in the pit of my stomach thinking about Monday morning.
No, because my weekend exists as one day in the middle of the week.
Ok I just stumbled in here and am not the right demographic, but the post resonated. I think it’s honestly about feeling a lack of direction, like the next real big dream you’re going towards. I don’t mean like “hit that next promo” or “be able to do X pushups” but the actual big deals that take years to accomplish. You might not know what you want which sorta puts a dampener on fun, at least it does for me.
Since I cut my drinking way back I do. I get up around 5:30 and do a run/walk with the dog for 4 miles. Half way through I pick up the wife breakfast and pick up the pace back home. Then I give her breakfast and make the kids their breakfast and take a nice shower. After that I just feel ready to go to enjoy the day.
The real weekend? Helllll no as that is our busiest time at work.
My weekend from work? Absolutely I do! 48 hours to do whatever I feel like.
I’m indifferent about the weekend. I don’t really know what to do. I used to do more sports and outings but now I really have to force myself to go. I’m more of a home-body and shoot pool or play video-games at my house.