Wendy Grace
It is one of the modern day problems that we are all so ‘busy’ all the time. For most people this starts in the morning, usually with your head spinning because you look at your phone and your work day begins far too soon. This then has a ripple effect on the rest of the day. The more you rush, the more you stress and cross words are probably exchanged before you are even out of your pyjamas.
A good morning needs to start with a good night’s sleep. Are you going to bed early enough? Have you cut out electronic devices for at least an hour before bed? Have you prepared as much as you can for the next morning?
The next thing to do is look at how you start your day. Don’t start it by looking at your phone. Why not start it with a short simple prayer, at the moment I am enjoying listening to the Dynamic Catholic 3-minute Lenten reflections. The next stress eliminator is for you to have yourself ready before your children. This probably means getting up half an hour early, but it is worth it. Have yourself washed dressed and ready to go, prepare all you need for school and breakfasts the night before, and always give yourself 15 minutes of breathing room to allow for meltdowns, spillages and lost keys!
Saint Benedict talked about how daily routines were really important in terms of how your day plays out, a bad routine can lead to impatience, inefficiency and ultimately everyone being unnecessarily frazzled. It’s about making priorities, planning your day and week to figure out what are the things that are important, and what are the things that can wait? If you’re starting your day with things that make you feel impatient or stressed, then these are things that you need to look at cutting out or moving to another time in the day. For many families Monday’s are the techiest, so give yourself and your children even more time on a Monday morning to be ready for the week ahead.
Reflect on how you spend your time in the morning, do you take 20 minutes trying to decide what the children and you should wear? Decide on everyone’s clothes the night before. Of course, you starting your day wrong doesn’t just impact you, children pick up on stress and you probably find there are more arguments about getting ready and out the door. It’s also really important that your children have a clear routine of who does what in the morning. Make sure older children have specific jobs, remember whatever they are capable of doing for themselves they should be doing for themselves.
When leaving the house try giving each other family blessing for the day, even if things have not gone according to plan at least you can reset as you pray for a happy healthy day for everybody.