Are you dreading the upcoming school holidays? Are you worrying how you’re going to fill that time, how you’re going to keep your kids entertained and you’re wondering as to how much it’s going to cost you and just the entire weather, whatever kind of holiday it is, whether it’s one week, six weeks. two weeks. The same challenges normally arise.

So in this week’s blog, I’m going to share three key steps with you as to how to really rock some holidays in a very simple way. I’m also as a bonus going to share with you one principle which I find A lot of mums fall into the, um, hole with, uh, myself included, uh, on occasions and just want to blow that, blow that one out of the water.

Step 1: Start to make a list of things that your kids mention in your day to day goings and what are the kind of things that maybe they say, Oh, mom, do we have time to do this? Can we do this? Can we go and see so and so and start to jot down the things that are coming up. Or maybe you’ve had a thought, that you’d really like to have some time with them to make some brownies or cookies or show them how to do something that they’ve been asking about and see what that list looks like. It might be short, might be long, and add to it as you go.

Step 2: Take out your calendar, your diary, digital or paper, and make a little sketch of when these can be done. Now obviously, depending on where you’re living, you’re more than likely going to have weather challenges with that, so some things might be outdoor and weather dependent, and others might not.

Hopefully you have a balanced list of some things that you can do out and about and others that you can do at home, so that you can mix it up. Start to scatter those through the weeks so that there’s a mix throughout the holiday weeks of different things that they have wanted to do, that you’ve wanted to do, and start to get a sense as to how you’re going to fill, fill the weeks ahead.

Step 3: Have a think as to maybe some things around the house that you’d like to get done for you, but also for the benefit of your kids. So maybe it’s about decluttering their rooms or cleaning a particular area in the house. Now I know that might sound like a grim thing to have to do during the holidays, but I was very pleasantly surprised recently with two of my kids.

We started this project, we had so much fun, we were covered in dust. We were a team of, uh, artists from head to toe. And we were going through old toys and clothes, et cetera. And the memories and conversations that that actually threw up was ticking the box of doing a massive job. And it took quite some time.

We actually had so much fun doing it. And The result was they had a really good sense of, you know, their room was really well sorted out, how they wanted, um, all the stuff was put in storage. They had the pleasure of visiting many memories as they did that. And I was delighted that we had gotten rid of loads of clutter as well and sorted, sorted stuff out.

So it was an unexpected benefit to it. But there might be other things that maybe they’re more job like things that They just need to get done. And I do think, personally, it’s important that kids have a sense of, they’re not guests staying in the house, they’re part of the household, and they do, in an age appropriate way, need to pull their weight.

So whether that’s putting on a load of washing, hanging out the washing, tidying it away, sorting it, whatever, different jobs that are around. I fell into the trap for a long time of doing a lot of this by myself, and my frustration grew and grew, as to, you know, why is it always me? The answer is it’s always me because I never did anything about it.

Then we started to kind of farm out some of the tasks and that really spread the load and gave the kids a better appreciation too. So don’t underestimate the importance of that. You might feel that, it’s not something you really want to get kids to do, but even if it’s just one or two little things that they started built into their routine and they understand the load that you have, you’re carrying and you would really benefit from having their help.

Some of those types of jobs, you might choose to actually give them some money to actually do them and others, you might feel, they’re part of being a household, so we all need to put our weight and that really is very subjective. It’s your call as to which way you go on that, but that can also be an additional motivator. If there’s a little bit of money in it for them to, to help you with the job or to do the job for you.

Separately I feel that many of us fall into the trap of feeling like we are our kid’s entertainer and we need to make sure that they are entertained for every minute of every, every day. I am guilty of falling into that trap occasionally and previously did it a lot before I had the realization. It is absolutely 100 percent okay to be bored because the most amazing things can come from children who are bored and I have seen this time and time again. Sometimes you have to get over that hump of the moaning and groaning and crabbing at you about why they’re bored and there’s nothing to do etc. But when you just kind of breathe through it and get on with something else yourself and let that pass, they come up with the most amazing ideas as to what they can do to entertain themselves. It might be quietly in their bedroom. It might be finding a book that they forgot they have. It might be looking through an old memory box. It might be deciding to go out and play with a friend. It might be a myriad of options, but giving them that space to be bored is a gift.

Many of us think that we don’t want them to be bored because they can get up to all sorts, but actually the benefits to doing that is amazing. That has a ripple effect, in my opinion, through the rest of their life, because if we fall into the trap of wanting to make sure that they are entertained at all times, Then we run the risk down the line that when they have in their later years and we’re, you know, they’re becoming more independent, they can’t function when there’s nothing to do.

They don’t know what to do. So this is a skill that you need to almost walk side by side with them on. And the earlier you can, you know, teach them to do this, the better. So that’s one that I kind of encourage and I find huge benefits in. It can be a little bit, like I said, a bit bumpy in the beginning when they’re starting to do it and you get pushback around it, but is amazing. It just blows my mind every time that this happens in our house as to what they discover about themselves, about their about stuff that they’ve got in their room about things that they can do and it just amazes me and it can go it can go all sorts of ways so I want to leave that one with you as maybe something to experiment.

To Your Financial Wellness,

Caitriona