A New Family Rule

  Posted on January 13, 2017 By

 13 Comments

I think it’s pretty obvious we are very good at doing way too much with our limited spare time.

Once again, this weekend has turned into another crazy weekend as we are going away.  It wasn’t really in our plans, but it sort of just made sense in the end.

I have to work Saturday for a public meeting that I’m running (yuck, I never work on weekends) and it happens to be in close proximity to some friends.  And those friends happen to be having a birthday party for their kid on Sunday.  So, rather then me driving 7 hour round trip by myself on Saturday and then driving another 7 hour round trip on Sunday as a family, we’ve decided to just make a weekend out of it – doing part half of the driving Friday and half the driving Sunday.  And we plan to have some fun while we are at it!  (Also, no nees to worry, the roads are nothing like they were earlier this week – as they are now clear and safe and expected to be throughout the weekend).

But, after this weekend, we are not doing anything for the foreseeable future.  In fact, I think we have about a month of no weekend plans!  And, we are excited by the thought of multiple non-committed weekends in a row!

We have been doing way too much for months now, and I think we hit our limit during our Christmas/New Years crazy.  So we have a new rule – we are simply going to stop doing so much.

Easier said then done, right?

Well, we’ve decided to be black and white about it.

1 weekend of significant activity (i.e. family/friends staying at our house or us going away for family/friends commitments) = 2 weekends off. 

I’m not saying the off weekends mean we are just going to sit at home all day, realistically that’s probably not going to happen because I will get way too board and Baby MPB seems to do better during the day when he has an outing.  So, on our off weekends we will still do stuff as a family around home – we may go to the zoo, or the grocery store, or enjoy a baby play date with local friends, or even go to the local park (if it ever gets above -22F).  So, what I really mean is that our off weekends are going to be about creating unscheduled, downtime as a family.

And, maybe if I’m lucky this new strategy will also help my immune system recover and maybe even gain some strength so I’m not sick every other week!

If you like this post, please feel free to share and please click the follow button on the side or return to myperfectbreakdown.com to follow my journey!

 Category: Baby, Family, Parenting, Travel      Tags: , , , , ,

13 Comments on “A New Family Rule”

  3. I love this. I actually schedule an at home weekend every month because the other weekends tend to build up with busyness. This weekend is going to be crazy for us, but next weekend is our off weekend and I’m already looking forward to it. I may adopt this though when we have kids. It definitely has a flexibility and healthy boundaries!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  4. I love the rule and want to adopt it for myself, but adhering to it would be hard in my family. My wife has an annoying way of booking us up with social outings on the weekend, while I look forward to having downtime at home with someone to watch the baby while I catch up on laundry and cleaning… This weekend we are hosting friends for dinner tonight, baby swim class and 5 family members visiting for the day tomorrow, and then I work Sunday. The family visiting was sprung on me last night. God I want this rule for myself…. Sounds like you’ve made peace with this trip though and will make the most of it! Have fun!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • My husband is a lot more like you – he really enjoys his downtime and time at home. I’m the one usually scheduling too much! So I know it’s gotten completely out of control when I’m the one waiving the white flag begging to stay home more!
      And I think my 2 weekend off plan is never going to happen. But hopefully by aiming for 2 we can actually get 1 weekend off!! 😊

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  5. My husband is a social introvert who gets worn out from spending too much time with people, so we have sort of a flexible rule that we must have one weekend a month with no firm plans. We have been doing this since before we had kids.

    I stress, it’s flexible, so if we have a particular month with a lot of plans (October and December always seem to both be busy for us, for different reasons), then we will aim for two unscheduled weekends the following month.

    This arrangement allows us to strike a balance between my desire to see friends and family and my husband’s desire to stay home. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Our rule will have to be flexible too. Like you point out, some months like december are just crazy busy and then other months can be a little bit lighter.
      I’m also usually the one scheduling took much and my husband enjoys and needs his downtime a lot more. So I know it’s gotten out of control when I’m desperately for more down time!!

      Like

      Reply

  6. This sounds awesome! I hope that it helps your sanity out a bit. Honestly that’s probably about as much planning as I can handle myself…holidays are hard and stressful for introverts! It’s great to make plans and get out once in a while, but too often is just exhausting. I hope you enjoy your new down time!

    Like

    Reply

Thoughts? I love hearing from you!

Follow My Perfect Breakdown on WordPress.com

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Copyright
Unless otherwise cited, all content, photos & text, are property of the author of "My Perfect Breakdown" and cannot be reproduced without permission. Should you like to use something, please contact the author for permission.

My Perfect Breakdown

Blog at WordPress.com.