It's Monday and I'm Exhausted.

My weekends are sacred family time. They are blocks of the week when we come together as a family and have our intimate moments through simple joys and shared fun and exciting activities. It’s a time filled with love, laughter, and genuine connection. I am truly blessed to have my little darling girl and the love of my life. I cherish every moment with them and I never take these moments for granted. Life is short. I make a conscious effort to be present and enjoy their company.

And yet… Monday arrives, and I feel like a dead man walking.

I admit this with a little shame, because I only have one child. I am genuinely wondering how do parents with two or more do it? I am definitely doing something wrong.

So I’ve started giving this “Monday problem” more thought. There has to be something that I can do better, some adjustment to make, some perspective I’m missing.

1. First, as briefly mentioned above, I put tons of thoughts and efforts into our weekend planning ahead. I really do. And I enjoy doing this, because it gives me a great joy thinking of all the fun and enriching experience that we will have together. But, it is also probably true that in my pursuit to make the "most" of our family time, it gives this constant energy, expectations, or the quiet pressure that becomes my own emotional load. It can feel like I am carrying the responsibility for my family's lovely weekend experience. No-one is putting that load on me, but myself.

   
   

2. Sometimes I schedule our weekend planning that overload a little too much. It's a tricky balance. The problem with this is that it creates too many transitions (outings, packing, driving, rushing). This is where I should remind myself of our preference of travel style. We go and visit one place and fully enjoy, rather than hopping everywhere. Mantra is always <Quality, not Quantity>.

   
   

3. Fail to block out one intentionally slow session. This again is where I need to learn to say no (even to myself) so that Monday isn't such a crash. Even one small change could help, like fewer plans on Sunday afternoon, one slower Monday morning, an earlier night on Sunday.

There were the obvious ones that I could identify and make changes. It's all about lowering my own standards and expectations for our weekends and reducing the number of activities (e.g. 1 activity per morning / afternoon). Of course, easily said than done. It requires constant reminder and re-adjustment.

But recently, I've noticed something more profound. It's a quiet energy drain that's not so obvious but wears me down alot. The low-level constant micro-decisions.

The repeated packing and unpacking is a great example. Each outing requires me to think from scratch: what do we need, where is it, what did I forget last time? It causes decision making and panic stress every time we leave the house. The sense that I need to be prepared for every possible scenario. By the time we step out the door, I already feel tired.

So I’m going to experiment with implementing tiny systems that can allow me to auto-pilot.

• Dedicated bag for the weekend swim class: it stays ready for her weekend swim class. The same items live there week after week. After class, I only deal with what’s wet, and once it’s dry, it goes straight back in. No rethinking. No rechecking. The next weekend, I just grab it and go.

• Weekend "outings bag" that is always packed with nappies, wipes, clean cloth sets, snacks. Same bag > Same spot > Same routine

It's not just saving 5 minutes. It will remove micro-decisions, lowering stress before leaving, making outings feel lighter and preserving energy before I even start the activity. I will see how it goes, one small adjustment at a time.

A gentle reframe here is >> How can I plan our weekends in a way that allow our family to enjoy at the weekend and look after for Monday me, too?

Dec 2025