After a hectic week at work, Sharon Hudson-Dean, Acting Director at the American Center, not only loves spending her weekends with her three kids but also loves pampering herself with pedicures and massages, and leafing through the latest issue of Vogue

My weekends are mostly focussed on my three children — a son (aged 7) and twin girls (aged 18 months). Because I work full time during the week, it is very important for me to spend quality time with them on weekends.

I especially enjoy having a big breakfast with them, taking them swimming or going for walks. During Sunday bandhs, it is very nice to go for long walks around the quiet streets with no cars and motorbikes.

But it is also very important for me to make time for myself on the weekends. I love paging through the latest Vogue issue, and getting pedicures and massages.

Fridays are generally movie nights with my son.  We like to get DVDs and have what we call ‘TV dinner’ — eating dinner and watching movies like Pirates of the Caribbean or Star Wars. Recently, my son and I have had a lot of ‘reading dates’ during which we spend a few hours before his bedtime reading our own books together.

I love going to Boudha to visit the stupa, admire the colourful prayer flags and look in the shops. I also really enjoy Bhaktapur because there are no cars or motorcycles, so I can walk around in peace and admire the architecture.

One of the best weekends I ever had was in February, 2005.  I surprised my husband and son by getting them on a bus early in the morning and taking them into New York City on a Saturday.  We went straight to Central Park where the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude had put up thousands of tall gates covered in billowing saffron sheets throughout the park. It was a beautiful, cold day and we walked under the gates with a lot of other sightseers. Then we went to the Natural History Museum to see the dinosaur skeletons, which made my son very happy. After delicious pastrami sandwiches at a real New York Jewish deli, we went home. It was a perfect day.

An ideal weekend includes doing something outside with the children, catching up with a friend, reading a good novel, attending church, and going to a yoga class on Sunday evening. After a weekend like that, I am ready for another fast-paced week at work.