3 Tips To Eliminate Holiday Overwhelm
steffani

3 Tips To Eliminate Holiday Overwhelm

I hope you’re having a great holiday season already. It’s going by so fast. I’m decorating my house and my friends helped me. Thank God for my friends because I wouldn’t know what to do. I would just have a bunch of red Christmas pillows and that’s it.

Instead, thanks to my friend Liz at Two Story Farm House, I have all these gorgeous things and my mantel with beautiful pompoms hanging. I mean, who knew that you could hang pompoms from your mantle and it would look so cute! I’m putting up some really cute stockings and more stuff to come. It’s amazing!

Decorating for the holidays for me is like a month long because decorating isn’t easy and I needed more things. I needed more things that I really love and to get rid of some old things that I didn’t love.

So I wanted to talk quickly about some tips and tools of how you can shift out of over-whelm and really enjoy the holidays more.

These are some really simple things, but for me, they’re still kind of smack on the head, ‘Oh my God, why didn’t I do that sooner?’

Tip 1: Get Everything Into Your Calendar.

Every. little. detail. Goes into your calendar.

For example, my husband texted me and said we should order some things for Christmas Eve dinner. So I put it in the calendar for Monday at 11:00 AM.

Every. little. thing.

  • We’re dropping off some gifts at this wonderful organization today.
  • We have a family that we bought gifts for and we’re delivering them today between five and nine.
  • Take my daughter to ballet at 5:15.

So putting everything on the calendar is a big important thing.

I know it sounds silly, but I even put in my calendar when I want to reach out to my sister in law and invite her to Christmas Eve.

When things live in our head, it can feel so overwhelming. That’s where so much overwhelm comes from. So putting everything in your calendar or on paper really helps.

I have notes in my phone about people that I need to call or dinners that I want to schedule or my gift list – everything.

Overwhelm is a state of mind, but it also comes from all of the things being only up in your head.

Tip 2: Get in the Right State Every Morning.

I know I talk about this a lot, but it’s been a process for me to learn over many years. But now it’s something that I don’t miss.

Get in the right state every morning by listening to music and doing a meditation, doing some affirmations, doing a gratitude list or whatever fills you up.

During the holidays it’s so much more important to do things in the morning that get you in the right state.

You want to show up as your best self instead of frazzled and busy. I mean, if you’re a mom, you’re taking on 90-95 percent of the work, maybe 98 percent of the work. You’re doing it all so your state matters.

So do everything you can first thing in the morning to really fill you up and get into the most peaceful state possible. Then you can be ready for any of the challenges that might come your way.

Tip 3: Ask for help.

Outsource that shit as much as you can.

  • I asked my friends to come over and help me decorate and Liz showed up with things from her store and helped me decorate.
  • I asked my friend Andy to come over and help me decorate and she helped put things together.
  • I’m asking my friends to do some shopping for me.
  • I’m asking my assistant to help me with buying some of the gifts.

There’s so much that we can ask for help with and outsource.

I know we all want to be supermom. I know we all want to say that we’ve done it all, but why?

I mean if I can, I will. I love hosting things and having everyone bring something because then I have the house to host. I can have drinks and appetizers and everyone brings something. I can handle that.

On Christmas Eve I’m actually going to cook. I’m going to ask my friend Jen, who’s my most amazing chef and friend, what to do. Right? I’m going to ask her for help. I’m not going to try and do it all by myself.

Ask for help with shopping.

Ask for help with your parties.

Ask for help with everything.

I hope you’re having an awesome holiday,

Steffani

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I have a Happier Moms for the Holidays Challenge going on right now. There are hundreds of women signed up. We have six days worth of short videos with a challenge each day all around the same topic of how you can get out of overwhelm and step into what really matters most to create your happiest holidays ever.

So I hope you will join me for that. It’s totally free.

Confessions From a Mom of a Strong Willed Child
steffani

Confessions From a Mom of a Strong Willed Child

I originally posted this in November 2015. From the comments I read on Facebook from other Mom’s of strong-willed children, I thought it was important to repost now.

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I yell at my kids.

I’ve grabbed my son, Jack, by the arm and literally dragged him to his room. I have slapped his hand, spanked his butt, and told him I’m moving to California and never coming back.

None of this I’m proud of. It actually haunts me at night. How I, a very peaceful, loving, happy and positive person most of the time, could do this to a child is beyond me. He’s only 6, and this has been going on since he was born. If I saw someone treating their kid this way I would be disgusted. Not only would I judge them harshly, but I would consider calling the police.

I see it a lot, though. And all too often is nothing physical — it’s just verbal abuse. Literally, abuse. Recently I looked at a Mom who was berating her son at a hockey game about the usual morning issues, “You had your socks when we left the house. It’s not my job to keep track of your stuff,” she yelled while dragging him by the arm across the locker room. They were obviously late for the game. She slammed him down on the bench and started unpacking his hockey bag by dumping the contents all over the floor. I saw the look in this 9-year-old’s eyes — he was defeated. He looked like a 9-year-old version of my son, almost exactly. I wanted to walk over to her and whisper, “There’s a better way. Don’t do this.” Instead, I looked inside and turned those words back on myself. How can I find a better way when in that moment?

Do You Have a Strong-willed Child Too?

If you have a “strong-willed” child at home, which basically describes every kid between the age of 18 months to 8 years old, then you know you’ve been there. it’s not EVERY kid that age, but most of them. You know if you have a strong-willed child, and you’ve probably known since the day they were born. A strong-willed child can push buttons you never thought you had. They’re the toddlers that run away from you at the park with no fear at all. They’re the kids that drop their pants at a playdate just for laughs. Who uses every bad word he knows to get attention from his friends. Who crosses a line if you say don’t cross it.

Right? Do you know what I mean?

My son has a filter up to the words. “Don’t” and “No.” When you say them, he MUST do it. That’s how he’s wired. And I’m sure I was the same way. Now don’t get me wrong, I love my son so hard it hurts. Sometimes I literally want to eat him for breakfast. I can’t get enough of his cheeks and his soft skin and his cute haircut. It’s beyond words. I’m sure you know. And sometimes when I’m putting him to bed at the end of a long day, his strong will is almost blinding me. I want to jump out of the window. I have said more then once, “If you don’t lay down and get to sleep I’m going to jump out of this fucking window.” Yes, I swore at a 2-year-old!

So, when I saw that Mom, spent and furious, treating her kid like a common criminal, I looked within and I asked myself how can I be the best Mom possible to my strong-willed child?

And here’s what I came up with… Here’s my REAL confession…

I am not a perfect Mom.

Sometimes I don’t even feel like a good Mom, but I do think my son is perfect. Sometimes he misbehaves, but he’s still perfect. He often doesn’t listen, but he’s still perfect. He challenges any and all authority, but he’s perfect. If there’s a rule, he will break it, but that’s perfect. I’m done trying to make my son someone he’s not. I’m sick of feeling like a bad parent every time his behavior is outside of the norm or makes people uncomfortable. A strong-willed child has an enormous personality. That’s a lot to fit in a tiny body. They’re trying to figure this life thing out, right along beside us. Some teachers get it. Most don’t. They’re intimidated by their strength. Camp counselors either love them or hate them. And that’s ok.

The most important thing is that I love him. That I GET him, and that I accept him for the strong-willed kid that he is. What I know for sure is that he’ll grow up to do amazing things. Kids with personalities the size of Texas don’t just idle through life unnoticed. They make waves and those waves create a ripple. Last week, he insisted on carrying his teacher’s chair for her. My heart melted. And he asked a kid over for a playdate because he thought he could use a friend. That’s my boy. Now if only I can remember that when I’m trying to get him to go to bed. I’m working on it. Until then I’ll remind myself that strong-willed children come from strong-willed parents, who were typically strong-willed children too. I feel they need a LOT of compassion and maybe more breathing room than other kids. Lots of responsibility and tons of love. I’m gonna stop apologizing so much and stop walking on eggshells. I’m gonna be confident and supportive of my son and who he is, in all his perfection.

If you have a strong-willed kid at home, join me. What can you do to accept your child and encourage their uniqueness all while loving yourself, too?

Join me on the Badass Mom Society Facebook Group for support from other Moms just like you!