Most Saturdays I’m up at 5.30am, carefully trying not to wake the family. I’ll make a quick black coffee before creeping out of the flat to get to the gym for 6am. We live on Hove seafront, straight across from the beach – it’s a lovely view first thing. On a Saturday I’ll drive to our local gym (during the week it’s a 20-minute walk, but I try not to be out for too long on weekends). Because I run an online fitness business, it’s really important I stay active. Once I’m done, I’ll drive back via the supermarket for breakfast supplies.
The others are usually just waking up by the time I get in, so I’ll get started on breakfast ASAP. At the moment, we’re all into pancakes on the weekend – the kids love helping out and mixing the batter. Arlo, our youngest, has achondroplasia (the most common form of short-limb dwarfism), which means he started standing and walking a little later than other kids his age, but he loves climbing on to his toddler stool to get stuck in! Recently, we’ve been making an effort to lay the table and all eat together, often with Paw Patrol on in the background.
There’s usually a birthday party happening on a Saturday. Because our daughter, Alba, is now at school, there are kids’ parties almost every weekend. She absolutely loves it – we’ve gone to everything from local church hall and house parties to soft play. Recently, she went to one at Blackberry Farm Park in Lewes, which was great fun – the kids all went mad for the animals. Generally, we’ll all go as a family (a lot of the time siblings are invited, which is great) and chat to the other parents, who we’ve got to know well, too.
Arlo’s disability has taught us to be more patient as parents. Generally, it means factoring in a bit more time to do things, but we’re used to that as a family and welcome taking things a bit slower. Often we find ourselves thinking: “Right, it’s going to take a bit longer to get in and out of the car,” so we’ll set off earlier. It also means we’re mindful of the activities we do. For example, with Arlo’s condition, things like certain rides at theme parks, bouncy castles or trampolines aren’t ideal for his spine. Because of that, we try to avoid activities he can’t do, as it’s not fair on him.
Afternoons usually involve some chill time. By lunchtime, the kids are generally tired after playing with their friends, so we’ll head home to balance things out. We can sometimes be guilty of trying to fit too much in as we’re both pretty sociable. Often one of us makes lunch while the other plays with the kids, doing crafts or messy artwork. Sometimes we’ll prep something for dinner too, to save time later. Spaghetti bolognese is always a winner!
Getting outdoors later is a must, particularly if we’ve been cooped up inside in the morning. Hove Lagoon is five minutes away in the car – we’ll often take the kids to the playground there as a family. In the summer there’s a little paddling pool with water jets too, which the kids go mad for. Sometimes, we’ll visit Preston Park Velodrome in Brighton. It’s the oldest cycle track in the country and Alba’s really into it – she learned to cycle when she was three and hasn’t stopped since!
Lately, we’ve been trying to eat dinner as a family – otherwise, Rosie and I find cooking takes up most of our evening. As well as being nice to sit together, I find the kids actually eat better with us. Alba’s latest obsession is gyozas with noodles. During the summer months, sometimes we’ll take something simple like a big pasta dish down to the beach and eat there on picnic blankets. If there’s time, I’ll take my paddleboard down, too. Alba loves heading out on the water with me.
The bedtime routine can take a while, so we try to start early at 7pm. One of us reads Arlo a book in bed – usually Peppa Pig – while Alba starts getting ready. She’s on to “big girl books” like Isadora Moon by Harriet Muncaster. Alba’s at a bilingual school, so she’ll often sing us a song in Spanish before bed (she already speaks more Spanish than we do!).
Once the kids are down, our Saturday night ‘treat’ is a sauna – well, for one of us anyway. We’re lucky to have a brilliant local sauna at Hove Lagoon and there’s an evening slot and we take it in turns to book. It’s a fantastic way to wind down without your phone and we find it’s great for our mental health, as well as physical recovery. You usually sleep amazingly well afterwards, too.
We’re both guilty of enjoying some reality TV to switch off before bed. At the moment it’s At Home with the Furys, but sometimes I’ll listen to a podcast or watch YouTube while Rosie reads. As Rosie and I are both self-employed, we have to be quite disciplined about work and try not to read emails on weekends, but sometimes we’ll have the odd one to reply to before bed. Generally, making it to 10pm feels like an achievement!
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