You wear many hats in life: devoted mother of two, loving wife, caretaker for your parents, caretaker of your house, financial provider and it simply never ends. As women, we generally are bestowed with the task of maintaining a family in more ways than one. It’s not easy but we do what we do because we have to and no one else is going to. At the core of it all, we are the family glue that holds the unit together.
But how do we balance it all and keep family as a priority?!
As women, we generally are bestowed with the task of maintaining a family in more ways than one.
In this coming year of 2018, here are a few tips to strategize your time so you can create a home where family time comes first.
Schedule Regular Family Dinners With No Cellphones
Between your busy work schedule, your children’s extra-curricular activities, and homework, it can be quite the challenge to sit down as a family to eat dinner. Choose one night a week for your entire family to sit down and enjoy dinner together. Make a, “no technology” rule. Put all your cell phones and computers away during this time so that you can all focus on each other during dinner. Having 1 hour a day with no technology and quality family conversation will do wonders for family chemistry. Remember to set the boundaries and be strict with the no technology rule, this way once it becomes the norm, there’s no arguing with it because the expectation has already been set. This will create a precedence and special times that you’ll remember way after when your children are off to college.
“Having 1 hour a day with no technology and quality family conversation will do wonders for family chemistry”
Plan Family Vacation for Lifelong Memories
As a busy mother in this modern day and age, time is by far your most valuable commodity. You’ve worked hard to become comfortable financially, but how to use it? Buy time! Booking off a family vacation is the perfect opportunity to create time when you wouldn’t normally have it.
Memories live forever. Your health is doing well, your children are young and absorbing the world like a sponge. There’s no better time than the present. A little recharge every once in a while will do you wonders and remind you exactly why you work as hard as you do.
Ask for the much-needed time off work well ahead of time, or if you’re your own boss then make it happen! For all you workaholics out there, it’s not easy but remember priorities for 2018. Family or work? No regrets.
Planning well ahead of time is key to a successful vacation. Include your kids in the planning process. Try to find a destination that interests everyone, and plan plenty of family activities on your trip.
Taking an annual vacation together gives everyone some quality family time to look forward to. You don’t necessarily have to go far from home on your vacation. There are many places with direct flights less than 5 hours, *hint hint nudge nudge*.
List Out Your Priorities and Do Away With the Rest
In order to get better at spending time with family, you’ll need to make some sacrifices. You might feel like you are too busy with work to spend time with your family, but other activities also cut into your family time, such as social obligations, working out, and household chores. Next thing you know you’re being pulled in every which way and direction. The English language has a term for that and it’s an affliction that unfortunately affects Americans all across the nation.
It’s name? Stress.
“You might feel like you are too busy with work to spend time with your family, but other activities also cut into your family time, such as social obligations, working out, and household chores”
Here’s a quick exercise:
Make a list of all of your life activities. Include everything from household cleaning chores to working past 5pm to date night movie with your spouse to family dinner time to breaking a sweat at yoga class. Now, prioritize them in order of importance and place those in a schedule for your day. The top 3 are now your must-do items, everything else will fall into place with your remaining time during the day but your priorities will be make time for the top 3. Consider it a successful day if you are able to cross those off.
In order to get better at spending time with family, your children’s schedules will also need to be examined. Have your kids pick a few activities they are really passionate about, and consider cutting back on the ones they don’t feel strongly about. This will give you all more time to spend together as a family. Efficiency with family time is as practical as creating efficiency with your time at work. Make the same approach! It’s all about quality and not quantity. Be present so you can make the minutes count.
Realize that All Your Chores May Never Get Done
To-do lists never end, and trying to complete them can leave you feeling like there’s not enough time for family. Prioritize what you must get done in any given week, and don’t sweat it if you don’t get your non-essential tasks done. Enlist the help of your spouse, children, or consider hiring a professional cleaner/maid to help you get some of the household work done. Getting everyone to help out around the house will free up time for you to spend time together as a family.
If your children are old enough to do chores, you assigning your kids a few chores to do each week will create a positive habit that they’ll carry later on in life. Instilling a sense of work habit will do them wonders. After all, they’re part of the team too.
“Enlist the help of your spouse, children, or consider hiring a professional cleaner/maid to help you get some of the household work done.”
After realizing that you may never accomplish everything and that that is okay is the first step to relieving stress and prioritizing family time.
Making Family Time Happen is Up to You
At the end of the day, you have to make it happen. Simply wishing for it won’t happen and continuing to go about life as you’ve previously been doing won’t either. As a wise man once said…“the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”
– Einstein
There’s no better time than 2018. A new year, new beginning and New Years Resolution to finally put what’s important to you at the forefront! It’s all up to you.
“At the end of the day, you have to make it happen”