The holiday season can be a source of triggers for many families: financial, emotional, physical, and mental stress is quite common this time around. Let’s dig deep and find ways to reduce the stress and be a merrier mom this season with these three helpful tips:
Tip #1 – Spend less money and time on gifts
The holiday season comes with lots of required gift-giving that can affect your budget, especially in circumstances where you are obligated to give a gift simply to reciprocate. However, is it necessary to gift everyone every season? My answer is NO.
If you have a limited budget for any reason, it’s perfectly okay to skip some people this year and not feel guilty about it.
The guilt drives us to spend more money than is really required. Finding ways to defray the costs of a gift (for instance collecting funds towards one large gift) is a great example and it works like a charm for your child’s classroom teacher.
Bear in mind, there are inexpensive gifts that can be given as a gift, baked goods at home are a perfect example with a beautifully handwritten note. Next time you’re out shopping and your guilt elf shows up on the shelf and reminds you to need to get everyone on the list, picture your wallet and remember, it is okay to skip some people. This doesn’t mean anything personally, you’re just being smart and saving money.
There’s nothing jolly about receiving a big, fat credit card bill towards the end of the year.
Tip #2 – It’s okay to say no to holiday events
Emotional and mental stress comes with the holiday seasons, you may find yourself fulfilling obligations, planning events, and hosting and attending events. Accommodating different personalities and demands can be very straining.
If you find yourself in that situation, remind yourself: you can’t please everyone and that’s okay. Some personality types can never be pleased and it’s better to accept that rather than spend your precious time accommodating their needs.
When things get too emotional, remind yourself to pause and take a break.
Also, when holiday events are draining your energy, keep in mind to just start setting boundaries, and allow yourself to say NO to attending every event if you need a break. You can’t be a merrier mom if you’re too burnt out to be merry at all.
Another, stress factor that comes around the holiday season is the wonderful and lovely 2-week school break. It may be relaxing for some moms, but for working moms that stretch of time off from school is a disaster, where you must work out the logistics of childcare.
Also, for moms that have special needs kids, the lack of structure can be very difficult for some kids to adapt to and the required care falls on the caregivers. If you’re in a similar situation, make a daily schedule for your children and have activities scheduled daily. This is a great way to reduce stress and make memories for the kids also.
Tip #3 – Make time for yourself to relax
Physical stress comes in many forms: putting up the Christmas lights, hauling groceries for a large crowd, and keeping the house nice and tidy for guests. Regardless, it’s important to take care of yourself physically.
If you start feeling your body getting exhausted, start simplifying things.
For example, hire someone to put up your Christmas lights, order groceries through InstaCart, or switch to a potluck for some events to reduce your cooking time. This time around we are expected as moms to have the perfect house, matching PJs, holiday portraits, and Instagram-worthy tablescape for holiday parties. That is the goal. The reality is unless you have a genie lamp hidden in your closet, that’s not going to happen.
Let’s all make a conscious effort to simplify things this season without any judgment.
At the end of the day, the holiday season is supposed to be about spending some quality time with your family and friends. Let’s keep it that way. If you are burnt out already, that’s not going to happen!
I hope these tips for being a merrier mom help you slow down and enjoy this time of year. Cheers and I wish everyone a wonderful and merry season!
