If we have a ‘big day’ we know it is best to plan in advance.
And so with outings for children. On a boat we have a ‘grab bag’ with all the essentials should you need to abandon ‘ship’. It is left intact, no sneaking of batteries or plasters or water.
I know at the end of a long day it is a task to prepare for the next. But if you can save the extra energy for prepping, it will stop life ravelling the next. Can you ask your partner to help?
What five things can you give them do. Not just “one thing” they have to do.
Remember keep focussed on the blue sky, and the fun … whatever or who ever …
What are you all going to wear? Is it clean?
Wet weather gear? Umbrellas? (toy or real) Sunscreen?
What are you going to eat?
Can anything be made the night before?
Are the food and drinks containers ready to go? (Did they thoroughly wash the thermos after the last fishing trip with Dad?)
Do you have mopper-uppers? A bag for “rubbish”?
Do you want a rug or ‘picnic cloth’? Picnic chairs?
What is the weather looking like? Do you need a plan B, just in case.
Where is the picnic rucksack? Basket? Is it empty?
Is the car full of fuel?
Entertainment for the journey good to go?
Do you know how to get to where you are going? Exactly.
Are the mobiles etc charged?
Do you have the chargers for the car ?
Meeting up with a group
If you’re meeting up with friends or relations, are they good to go?
Do you need a gift ? Or the socks they left behind?
Hopefully you are meeting with pals with whom you can have a good laugh.
But it maybe you are obliged to meet with folks who are not so easy to be with.
What or who pushes your buttons?
What or who is that thread that will unravel the day?
Do they have “form” of last minute let-down? Do you have a plan B?
If they are tricky, or crazy makers do you have a way to cope with them?
Sometimes you just have to accept that it’s going to be a day of holding your tongue, and venting when you get home, and ‘treating’ yourself for a day well gone.
(Can you get to, after the children’s bed time before you open a bottle, hit the yoga mat, whatever calming ‘mechanism’ of choice.)
This article maybe of interest – “Taking the Stress out of family gatherings’.
https://childmind.org/article/how-to-take-the-stress-out-of-family-gatherings/
Hold All One for All All for One