Juggle Struggle blog

With the Christmas holidays just around the corner, let’s take a look at what us working parents could do to prepare. 

No, I’m not talking about gift-buying and wrapping (or cooking!!) – I’m talking about getting prepared to make it through the Christmas holiday season and come out the other side with our sanity intact. 

It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

Its also A LOT:

• Christmas gifting is basically a whole project. 
• Parents of school-age children have all the assemblies and costumes and fundraising and collections to remember. 
• Social get-togethers take on an added pressure – for some reason you have to squeeze them all in ‘before Christmas’ 
• Christmas becomes an arbitrary deadline at work too, trying to get all-the-things wrapped up (pun intended) before Christmas, as if for some reason the world is going to stop by then. 
• Some extended family is likely involved in your holiday season, whether you like it or not. 
• Payday is early, which makes you worry about making it to the end of January. 
• You either have to go all-in on completely avoiding the winter germs before Christmas, or trying to catch them all and get them out of the way. 
• You get to spend loads of time with your children, and then wonder how come teachers choose to spend loads of time with children. 

Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas and have some great memories, but I’ve started preparing for it in a slightly different way the last couple of years and I’ve absolutely seen the benefit. 

Here are my preparations: 

Scheduling me-time 

I’ve been learning that I’m someone who can feel overwhelmed by lots of people-ing. So, I carve out a window of time over the holidays where I take some time out just for myself. 

Not with a friend. Just me. 

Previously I’ve had a couple of hours at a spa or wandered round the shops. This year I’m considering the library. 

The point is, the time is on the calendar, my husband knows he is on parent duty and my unavailability is agreed up front (don’t worry, he gets his). 

Sometimes when it comes to it, I think “I’m actually OK, I don’t really need this break.” but I take it anyway, because I always come back home feeling like my energy levels are restored. And if there’s one thing you need at Christmas time, it’s energy. 

Writing my next-year plan 

I like to know that when all the festivities are over, I can hit the ground running with my priorities and goals for the year. Not spend precious time at the stsrt of the New Year trying to decide what to do. 

This means setting my goals and priorities before the holiday season begins. 

Here’s my recommended content for year- planning. [This is another blog post]. 

Booking in grown-up time 

My husband and I have already called in a babysitting favour during crimson limbo to make sure that we have some time to go out, relax and enjoy each other’s company. 

Christmas is so much about the kids and while it’s great to spend time with them, I also find it helps me to know I’ll be having grown-up time too, where my husband and I can focus just on each other. 

Those are my 3 preparations for making sure I get to the end of the holidays without feeling completely frazzled. What works for me might not work for you.

 If you don’t know what works for you, take the time this Christmas to pay attention to how you’re feeling over the season, whether there are any ups and downs, and what you think the cause might be. 

Then you can start to think about how you can design your ideal festive period around your strengths and weaknesses.

• Maybe you always find yourself a bit extra stressed because you end up working when you are supposed to be out of office – how can you better enforce some work boundaries? 

• Maybe you find it a hard time of year because of a lost loved one. How can you make sure you have space to honour those feelings? 

• Maybe you find all the food and drink makes you feel sluggish and demotivated for the New Year. How can you inject some oomph into your schedule to get some oomph back into you?

However you spend your holidays, have a great one working parents – see you in 2025!