I’m a 36year old mom starting my sober journey. Started staying sober week days but am having a hard time weekends when I have my days off. Any suggestions please?
Thank you
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Hi Erin, I am new to this and would benefit from hearing some responses as well. Good luck and hugs.
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Hi, welcome to TS!!!
What helped me most was to keep busy. I had to change all my routine up, keeping my hands busy was really important. Getting outside, exercising, diamond painting, listening to recovery podcasts, reading recovery literature, and I spent hours upon hours reading everyone’s extremely inspiring stories on this forum…
I did anything to distract myself from picking up.
I am going to link a thread that has a lot of good information attached to it.
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Welcome to you too Caite
I am glad you two found us.
There is a daily check in thread that was a real tool for me I will link it for you both. People will check in there throughout the day if they are having strong urges or just to celebrate they made it through and are hitting the pillow sober.
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Thank you!
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Think of weekends as just 2 days to take care of yourself. Your mindset will change once you do it a couple times.
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Welcome to this wonderful Forum @Caite1025. What I did to keep myself sane on the weekends is basically keep myself busy. I cleaned the hell out of my place for starters, room by room. One day I would start in the kitchen, then the next, living room. Next weekend, I’ll tackle something more room’s. Then, the hoopdy (car ^.^). Lately, I’ve been into reading. I’m a big history nerd and I won’t bore yah with what I read but it’s all fascinating to me nonetheless.
Go on walks long walks ( if you have little one’s, bring em to the park!) and think about the things I like. It took me a while to figure it all out but gradually, I got there! You have to tear yourself down and rebuild yourself up, piece by piece. Not to sound selfish or anything but you have to focus on You and only You because if you can’t help yourself, what’s the point of helping other’s? Stick around and keep asking questions and reading!
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For me it’s alot about information and learning. Having recently finished reading ‘This Naked Mind’ it gave me a clearer understanding of addictions and what alcohol exactly is and what it does to the brain. Sending strength your way
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Thank you 
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Welcome Erin.
I find gratitude to be my best and strongest tool. I got so much to be grateful for when I’m sober. I start every morning with a gratitude list right here.
It’s a great foundation for the rest of my day.
Have a good read around and join in when your comfortable.
During the day I also go through and catch up on what everyone else is grateful for. It’s a great way to retrain your brain.
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Welcome Erin! I had to keep busy the entire weekend. Lots of walks with my doggy and taking in all the beauty of nature. Everything seemed so bright and colorful. Puzzles and legos with my daughter helped rebuild our relationship. I found a nice women’s AA meeting on Saturday evening that I still go to weekly. Reading a ton of inspirational stories on here.
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Welcome! Congratulations on staying sober through the week! I think weekends are definitely harder for everyone although I needed to cut it out completely. What helped me was journaling, making a list of how much better I feel without alcohol and how much worse I feel with alcohol. Drinking has absolutely no benefits. It causes inflammation, cancer cirrhosis of the liver. This site has helped me more than anyone will ever know. Keeping busy and distracting oneself is also important but I also had to find a non-alcoholic drinks to substitute my cravings. I think for some people that doesn’t work but for me it did . I’m not drinking anything that tastes like alcohol -nothing like non-alcoholic wine or NA beer but I’m trying to find healthy alternatives and drinks that contain herb and flower extracts that are non habit forming but have a calming effect. There’s a topic
Discussion about drinks to help with alcohol cravings if you’re interested in looking there but I’m not sure how to post that link here I’ll try to figure it out or maybe somebody else will figure it out before I do 
Anyway glad you’re here sorry for rambling just trying to help anyway I can.
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Plan your day, from the time to wake to the time you go bed. Have something to do. Doesn’t have to be big things, just do something, and stick to your plan.
You would only need to plan out a couple to a few weekends before not drinking becomes routine.
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Thank you so much!
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