A Day In the Life of a Brooklyn Family
Sometime friends ask us, “if we’re OK.” Because we’re ALWAys on-the-go. Sometimes it does seem rather manic, but we live in NY. We can stop when we’re dead. Too morbid?!
-Patrice Poltzer, when asked to ponder why they do ALL THE THINGS.
Weekends are made for rest.
Huh? Not in my house. We do a lot of things on the weekends. And when I say “a lot of things” I mean it’s not uncommon for us to leave our house before 9AM and not return until it’s dark outside. BUT WHAT ABOUT NAPS!!!!?? I know what you’re thinking. There is napping but it’s usually done in a stroller (not every weekend) and for us that works (except for when it doesn’t and nuclear meltdowns ensue.) But that is rare as who has time for meltdowns when you are doing ALL THE THINGS in Brooklyn.
Typically we have no set plan when we step outside our apartment and that’s how we like it. We go where the day takes us and because we live in a city it’s possible to literally bump into experiences, events, friends and random pop-up parks on the day-of. Typically, my kids who are ages 5 and almost 3 will have one activity each (but not in the summer) so we’ll go do that, meet friends for brunch, check out a museum, go to a new restaurant, check out anything weird going on in our neighborhood which is all but guaranteed when you live in Brooklyn and meet more friends for drinks at a bar. Babies in bars in Brooklyn is like seeing yellow taxi cabs lined up and down 5th avenue. You can’t avoid seeing them. You’ve been warned.
Some of our favorite Brooklyn places for a weekend hang:
Pier 5 at Brooklyn Bridge Park Soccer, park and ice-cream views of the Statue of Liberty, the Manhattan skyline and all the bridges. You will feel bad for people who live in Manhattan because they don’t have THIS view.
Dumbo House We are not fancy. But admittedly, this place is fancy. I also use this as my office so it ticks a lot of boxes for me so JUSTIFICATION PEOPLE. But we swim at the rooftop pool all summer and throw the kids in the kid’s club while we mimosa brunch (and it’s everything and more..sorry but no, not sorry.) And it’s centrally located to all the cool things in Dumbo.
Pig Beach Literally the most perfect place in the world. Great BBQ, amazing music, massive outdoor and indoor area, cornhole stations and FROZEN ROSE. There is a changing of the guard around 7PM on weekends where the cool kids come in and the parents are (subliminally) forced to retreat home with their offspring. But the greatest place ever.
Graffiti walls in Gowanus: EVERYWHERE. It’s hard to go a few blocks in Gowanus and not see some sort of amazing mural on the walls. Basically you can walk to a bar with your kids and have an impromptu art lesson along the way. Guilt instantly assuaged.
Court 16 Tennis: The cutest tennis club ever and it’s run by a former marketing head at Adidas. You can go in your gross sweats like I do, but be prepared to look in awe at all the well-dressed European parents who look like they just walked off a runway. It’s OK.
Friends with rooftops: Yes, we don’t have massive backyards in Brooklyn but we do have access to some of the best views in the city? country? World? Find new people. Ask them if they have access to a rooftop. Befriend them. Cue all your rooftop dreams come true.
Ample Hills: Literally the cutest ice-cream store ever. You can also watch how the sausage, we mean ice cream, is made. They have a rooftop as well so this place kills two birds with one stone!
