As we all know, school holidays can be an extra challenge, from the juggling of childcare with all of our different options exhausted, to the constant interminable mess, and the epxectations to go on outings, pleading for money, and the fighting. Our self care is more important than ever, but it is often the first thing to go.
Because I know how hard it can be, I’ve developed a School Holiday coaching series on Tiktok, and thought I’d share it with you on here, so you have everything in the same place. Let me know what you think, and if there is a tip you want to see, I’ll do my best to help.
Part 1: Boredom Solver
Break free of the daily whinge. Are you anxious about how you’re going to deal with your kids’ boredom in the school holidays. When they’re coming up to you going,
“I’m Bored!”
“I’m bored! What can I do?”
That’s when you stop. Hold back the temptation to solve their boredom. When they rely on you to sort themselves out of the boredom, you alleviate their responsiblity to be able to do something for themselves.
Part 2: Scared of falling out of healthy habits?
Are you scared about the school holidays and it’s effect on your ability to continue your healing journey. Perhaps you’ve been working really hard and got into some great healthy habits like:
1 Exercise regularly
2 Sleep routine
3 Household managment on point
4 Meditation
5 Other healthy habits
Whatever the healthy habits are, you can still continue your healing journey. Give yourself a break from the pressure of how things have to be. Which is the ONE thing that you are doing right now, that is most integral to your mental wellbeing?
Got it?
Great, because, remember, if we aren’t looking after ourselves we can’t look after others very well, and 6 weeks is too long to just run on empty.
Okay, focus on that ONE things, that is most important to you. Make that, and ONLY that, a must. If you need to adjust your like to ensure it happens then do that. Here are some things that might help:
- Wake up 10 minutes earlier so you can do it, or prep for it
- Set an alarm or a reminder so that you do it – why not find an app that helps you, there are HUNDREDS out there.
- Get prepped the day before,
- Exercise, leave your workout gear ready for you, so it just makes sense to put it on when you wake up
- Meditation, have your mp3 at the ready to start your day the right way
- Give yourself a ✅ every time you do a healthy habit – either in a notebook or up on the calendar or a post it note. ANYWHERE.
- Help yourself by giving yourself microgoals, that are easy and achieveable and tickable.
Just ONE Thing
Give yourself a break. It is just not realistic to continue with all the things you are used to doing, alongside your kids being around 24/7. So just focus on doing ONE thing regularly, and get that incredible sense of satisfaction that you are doing that.
Part 3: Explaing To Your Kids
Before summer holidays begin, it is possibly a handy idea to speak to your kids and kind of have a meeting about expectations and plans for the summer. So much anger, frustratioin and disagreements come because we have different expectations.
To preempt the inevitable, alongside making plans for days doing things that each of you enjoy, it’s worth spending a bit of time explaining things from your perspective as well. Now, it’s not about blaming them for yoru life being hard, just about helping them understand that you are human too, and you would like some help.
Watch the video for a demonstration on how to visually explain the concept of pouring from a full cup to support others.
Part 4: “If they do one more thing I’m going to blow”
If you get that feeling that one more thing is going to make you explode at your kids. Take a moment. Either in the moment or if you hear your kids ramping up, you know it’s going to happen. Take a moment, and do some square breathing.
- Take a breath as your eyes go up the side of a square (or anything rectangular)
- hold your breath as your eyes run along the top
- Breathe out as your eyes go from top to bottom
- Hold your breath again as your eyes run along the bottom
- Repeat THREE times (at least)
This will help you feel grounded and be able to RESPOND more easily instead of reacting with the anger that has boiled up inside you.
Part 5 24hour Snack Bar
It’s so annoying when our kids feel like they have hollow legs and are constantly coming round asking for snacks. The holidays mean that this will be even more common than usual. You have a few choices:
- Put up with it, and spend your summer holiday prepping snacks and clearing up
- Give them responsibility for the snacks at the beginning of the week – you can even involve them in either the shopping itself or the list prep to ensure they get enough and what they want. DECLARE that is all they will get during the week, and it’s up to them to deal with.
- Similar to 2, but for younger kids explore the idea of Monkey Platters
Beyond Parenting
If you are looking for a bit of adult company during this holiday when your partner and you are tag teaming it because of work commitments, check out our new podcast, with new episodes dropping every Tuesday.