All parents crave a night off now and again. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't swap my kids for anything, but having the occasional time where you can just pop to the pub down the road for a drink with some friends or to go and do the food shopping without "muuuuuuum" or "daaaaaaad" ringing in your ears is quite nice.
The problem I've noticed recently, however, is that when I do get some time to myself I never know what to do! It's a bit of a hazard of parenting and growing up really that you send so many "sorry, I can't tonight" text messages to friends that they stop asking or when you can do something, they can't.
This made me think about the kind of things I can do in my free time without it either costing lots of money, and without having to leave the house. Here are some of the things I came up with.
As all parents will agree, you don't really get the chance to watch your favourite programmes on the television once you've got kids because, well, once they're old enough the TV belongs to them, not you! Until they reach that point you're too busy anyway so TV just doesn't happen.
I've heard a lot about certain series' in the past few months and I've taken to catching up using the on-demand TV box sets and Netflix. At the moment I'm watching Breaking Bad - yes, I'm very late to the party on that one - and I love it! I'm not a fan of Walt, there's something about him, but I think Jesse is pretty cool. I'm on season four at the moment so please don't spoil the ending!
Next on my list is The West Wing or House of Cards, I've not decided yet.
I've got an iPad and, like most things, that becomes the property of the children during the day too. In the evening, however, I've taken to relaxing for an hour or so each day by checking my emails, Facebook and so on, and then playing the odd game. FIFA football is good but it's quite fiddly on an iPhone compared to the console version.
I used to enjoy playing the lottery but don't have time to go out anymore so I found this great site called lottosend.com which lets you join the draws over the Internet. It's really quick and easy so I like that one a lot. I also enjoy playing board games so I've downloaded things like Words with Friends - that's really addictive if you get your friends involved, and it's always nice to beat them with a killer word!
It might sound pretty dull to some people, but I really do enjoy reading. Lately it seems as though I've just been reading things like Horrible Histories to the kids but they are actually quite funny and a great way to learn.
I'm definitely a fan of the crime thriller books and also autobiographies. Some of the celeb ones have been terrible, but others are quite funny - it's the risk you take really, so I stick to the crime.