On Saturdays, I wake up about 5.15am to try to get to the gym before 6am. I do this six mornings a week and I love a really good strength-training session. I’ll follow up with 15 minutes of cardio and a stretch before heading home in the car. Saturdays are still pretty intense in our house – we’re in full-on, entertain-the-kids mode – so it’s really important that I have a moment where I’m not a parent and I’m not a wife. I’m just me doing things that I love.
I need to be home by 8am at the latest, and it’s always an unknown as to whether my daughter will be dressed for gymnastics or not. Often I’ll scrabble around to get her ready and get myself in the shower before we need to hop in the car. Some weeks my daughter does gymnastics, sometimes it’s jiujitsu – we rotate. It’s like love and war with the kids – there will be moments where you’ll catch them just standing there hugging, then five minutes later they’ll be fighting about who’s going to get in the car first! You couldn’t make it up.
The kids love their classes – if we miss one, they’re like, ‘Why?’ The clubs help keep the kids entertained – they get quite bored at home and I find they can just end up watching a screen all day. I did every single class under the sun when I was younger – movement is inherent in me. At the clubs I went to as a kid, I made friends outside my day-to-day life that I’m still in touch with now. It expanded my horizons. There’s also that competitive element that comes with sport, and that still feeds into the type of job I do now, which is around commercial growth and targets.
While my son does jiujitsu, Grace and I often have a catch up over a hot chocolate. We’ll talk about her favourite things to do, or K-pop or unicorns. I want her to feel like we’ve got the rhythm and space to always talk about stuff – no matter how small or how big it seems. For me, it’s setting the groundwork for life and how I want our relationship to evolve. If the kids don’t want to tell me things, that’s fine, but I never want them to feel like they can’t, so getting into that pattern of good communication really matters to me.
My job on a Saturday is to be there and be present for the kids. I want to make sure I’m filling up their cup. It’s not really a day for switching off. I’ve always got tasks and jobs to be done – the food shop, washing uniforms – otherwise the next week isn’t going to run very well. But I like it because I get to have fun, bring the kids along with me and spend time with them in a different way.
Because I work full-time, I really amp up our family time on the weekend – perhaps that’s why I schedule it like another job. During the week, my husband works US hours so the weekend is the only time we’re on the same schedule. We’re really conscious of how we spend that time. Equally, it means we can divide and conquer with one of us doing the cooking while the other sorts the laundry.
After a structured busy morning, our afternoons are more relaxed. We’ll often have another family over. The kids tend to disappear into different pockets of the house and the adults just get to catch up. Wherever the kids are will be an absolute state, but we’re relaxed about it as long as they’re having fun. I love hosting at home. When I first saw this house, I thought: “We could have loads of families over here to hang.”
As much as I don’t mind cooking, I’d rather spend that time engaging with people rather than worrying about the timing of the chicken. We’re west African by heritage – I’m Nigerian and my husband is Ghanaian – and we have catering services we use who cook our cultural, traditional foods. I’ll often call up a lady I know and with just 24 hours’ notice she’s got us sorted. Maybe for the kids I’ll do pizzas and fruit. Often I’ll put out a load of food and we all just graze.
Sometimes lunches blend into dinner. We’ll say: “Shall we just feed the kids?” Then all we have to do when everyone departs is put them to bed. If I can, I’ll try to start the bedtime routine about 7.30pm but by the time they go to sleep it’s more like 9pm. As soon as they’re in bed, I’m in bed. I do my skincare and maybe a few final stretches. I like to take my time because on Sunday I might not get up until 6.30am, which is the closest I get to a lie-in.
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