Snow Day Stress Busters! You need this, I know...

Well, if you’re anywhere near where I am in Atlanta, snow days have been in abundance here lately!

It goes without saying that changes in schedules and the questionable future (is school out tomorrow again???) can make a lot of mommies super anxious. Add a little (A LOT!) of cabin fever and virtually no mommy alone time and things can get pretty stressful, for sure.

Decide to Roll with it…

Are you sick of making decisions? I know I am. There are the little things like what’s for dinner, what your picky one is going to agree to wear or how you’re going to spend (another!) afternoon indoors. Then, there are the big dogs – which car seat should I buy? How can I make sure my kids are eating something green?? Who’s going to watch them when I go back to work??? I feel like I’m making hundreds of decisions a day. It’s like Christmas morning when someone else chooses the restaurant or movie!

Here’s the cool thing about snow days. You got nothin’, mama. This is how it is…and there is nothing you can do about it! Yay! Take a silent moment to thank the powers that be that this is one thing you didn’t have to decide, for once!

Rather than adding to your list of reasons you’re offended or seeing it as an opportunity to complain, see it as a present from the Universe to you. When you’re knee deep in baseball practice, homework and carpools, you yearn for this slow time…ask yourself right now, why this is…what do you want from this time exactly?

I know that this sounds weird to some of you. “Yeah, thanks so much for the hours on end of dealing with my little people out of sorts, stuck inside with no escape…” I get it–but just hear me out.

You have an option to think about this differently than you normally would and I promise you, when you change the way you think about things, the things that you think about will change (Wayne Dyer said that). So, just decide to be where you are. And, decide to be here happily.

That’s all it is…A decision.

It could be tempting to just fill your head up with mommy blogs of complaints and incessant FB posts of woe is mommy, but you will feel better if you opt to move on to thoughts of acceptance and peace. These thoughts alone will make it all way easier to deal with…I promise you.

Be Creative with Your To Do List

Wouldn’t it be nice to have the time to do all that you wish you were doing or have been putting off Wouldn’t you love to do a few things that have become pipe dreams since you had kids??

Let’s be real, mama. If a magical time slot opened up for you, you would hit the road or fly to Barbados. You would NOT finally put together a memory book of wedding photos and memoirs.

This IS your magical time slot, mama! You can’t get to work, no one is open! Just because your nanny is across town and school is closed doesn’t mean all is lost! Rather than adding to the impending stress of what is to come when everything thaws, pick out a couple of items from your To Do list that you could actually do with the kids. You may need to dig a little deep and look in your “someday maybe” list, or “things I’ve been putting off forever” list, but it will feel so so good nonetheless.

Need to organize the kids’ artwork (download Artkive app for this, it rocks!)? Your kidslove looking at their past masterpieces and may really get into the task. Wonder if you’ll remember them just as they are right now when you haven’t managed to keep up the baby book? Take videos of kids interviewing the other kids on goofy topics of interest (you will cherish this footage one day). Sick of Pinterest overload and want to try making a real vision board? Kids LOVE doing this kind of thing…cut out images for everyone or have them help you remember what you’ve forgotten. Feeling sluggish and lazy from missing the gym? Pick a fun song and make up a dance…this was fun when you were little right? Even cleaning the garage can be fun if you download the right music, assign each kid a task, job or better yet, a title (Lieutenant of helmets and pads)!

Plus, admit it.  Usually, kids make everything more fun. They just do… 🙂

We’re all so so so busy and when we slow down, we look at each other like, how can I keep everybody busy again??

If everybody must be busy then work on something productive, something you want done, mama. But remember, we are not human doings, we are human beings (Wayne Dyer said that, too).

Slow Down…

This is a great opportunity to teach your kids (and you!) some sort of practice of silence. Even if it’s only a minute (yesterday, my two-year old joined us and it was probably about 40 seconds!). Someone once told me that if meditation was a pill it would be a billion dollar industry. I couldn’t agree more. Nothing will make you healthier or happier than finding some peace in your life.

Especially when everyone is screaming or crying or complaining or driving you nuts! Stop. Sit in circle (circle time at home is underrated). What are you thankful for? What are you thankful for? What are YOU thankful for? You may really learn some cool things about your kids. Then, have them come up with a question. To keep it from getting nuts, try the old therapist’s trick of giving a stick to the speaker (only they can speak when they are holding it). Change the crankies to gratitude time and everyone will loosen up a bit (even the toddler).

This is the time that you get. Snow days are about all you got for now…I’m not going to tell you that you’ll wish for these days when they go to college and blah, blah, blah because this makes mommies feel bad and if you know me you know I always say,

Feeling good is the name of the game.  So, do whatever you can to feel good (I said that). 🙂