How to Survive End of Year Madness

How To Survive End of School Year Madness

It’s the end of the school year and my calendar is marked up with all sorts of events and school happenings this month.  Not to mention I have two elemantary kids in separate schools.  This means two Teacher’s Appreciation programs, two Honors/Award programs, two end of year field trips and the list goes on!

I’ve recently learned that I absolutely can not be everywhere at the same time.  I’m only one person and my schedule does not expand just because the list of events in a month does.  So here’s what i’m doing to survive:

How to Survive the End of School Year Madness:
  1. Collect all the event flyers, invitations, and school calendars and set it next to your work calendar or personal calendar.
  2. Immediately cross off all the events you can’t attend and discard.  Forget about it, no space or time for mommy guilt!
  3. If it makes you feel better, find out if they need any items donated for the event you absolutely can’t attend and make arrangements to send it in early.  (But this will be giving in to your mommy guilt which is what you want to avoid.)
  4. From the activities that remain, talk to your kids about which events they would like you to attend.  You’d be surprise to find where you think they want you to be, they really don’t.
  5. Have them select 2 events and put them in order of importance or make a note on the flyer or calendar.  If they select something that was already crossed off from the beginning, explain to them that your schedule doesn’t allow it but you can be at the other ones.
  6. Play up the other events you can attend to distract them from the ones you can’t.  They maybe disappointed at first but this is life, and they have to learn early about responsibilities and time management.
  7. If your schedule only allows you to attend one event, explain to them that you can’t make any of the other ones.  Do not over promise.  This is where we stress ourselves out.  Only talk about the events you know for certain you can attend.
  8. Finally, relax and take a breath. Sip tea, drink wine. No one is judging you. We all tend to over commit but this time you are making better choices for you and your family and your children will love and admire you for it!

P.S. If you absolutely must, call in the grandparents or friends with no kids to fill in for you!  🙂    If all else fails, book yourself a massage. It will make you feel better.  Here’s one of my local favorites: Fresh Lemon Grass Massage

If you have more helpful tips to survive this season, please share in the comments below.

 

 

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