Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to try a DIY day. If you are
Speaker 1: feeling like you need some downtime or independent fun, Identify
Speaker 1: a day when everyone in your household will do their
Speaker 1: own thing, and you can officially relinquish all cruise director
Speaker 1: duties and talking with people about their time. I have
Speaker 1: gathered that a lot of people feel like they need
Speaker 1: to spend the whole weekend with their kids or their partner,
Speaker 1: and I get it. I like spending time with my
Speaker 1: family too, but I also love having time to do
Speaker 1: my own thing, and you might enjoy that as well,
Speaker 1: So don't assume that you and your family have to
Speaker 1: spend the weekend and lockstep. You might officially designate one
Speaker 1: weekend day as a DIY day. That is a do
Speaker 1: it yourself day everyone does their own thing. DIY days
Speaker 1: may not be on the menu if you have young
Speaker 1: kids who can't supervise or entertain themselves, but with older
Speaker 1: kids or no kids, DIY days can be a doable
Speaker 1: way of giving everyone time for what they want. You
Speaker 1: just choose a DIY day. Perhaps this coming Saturday if
Speaker 1: it's lighter, and give everyone notice that they are responsible
Speaker 1: for their own fun. If there are activities to be
Speaker 1: dealt with, you can at least designate certain hours as
Speaker 1: DIY hours. It is the same thing, if a bit
Speaker 1: smaller in scoop. DIY days are great for families where
Speaker 1: people have different interests from each other. Mom can go
Speaker 1: see the holiday lights and Dad can spend all day
Speaker 1: out in the garage if that is what he likes.
Speaker 1: One kid can read and another can find some friends
Speaker 1: to play a game all day. I recognize that in
Speaker 1: many families what the kids are going to want to
Speaker 1: do is be on screens all day, but if you want,
Speaker 1: you can keep general limits on that. Maybe nothing before
Speaker 1: two pm if that's your usual rule, or you could
Speaker 1: just let it go. If your kids are doing a
Speaker 1: lot of sports and activities during the week. A veg
Speaker 1: out weekend day isn't going to be the end of
Speaker 1: the world if it buys you time to do whatever
Speaker 1: you want, so it is probably okay. Now, it might
Speaker 1: be helpful to give everyone some advance warning, particularly if
Speaker 1: you are not going to be available to drive, or
Speaker 1: if there is a screen free time expected and it
Speaker 1: might also be nice to have some moments of togetherness
Speaker 1: on DIY days. For instance, you and your partner or
Speaker 1: kids might plan to convene at noon for lunch and
Speaker 1: then to convene again at seven for pizza and a
Speaker 1: movie night. But from one until seven, everybody does their
Speaker 1: own thing. The key thing here is that I know
Speaker 1: many people and particularly women, don't feel they have time
Speaker 1: for themselves. But I think that is often because there
Speaker 1: is this assumption that weekends need to be spent with
Speaker 1: family and organizing everything for everybody. Sometimes that is great,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't have to be every day. Planning a
Speaker 1: DIY day is a way to create space to do
Speaker 1: what you want and allow others time for what they want.
Speaker 1: You aren't the cruise director, and you don't have to
Speaker 1: coordinate activities all week and long. Everybody just does their
Speaker 1: own thing in the meantime. This is long, Urah, Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening, and here's to making the most of our time.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,
Speaker 1: or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura
Speaker 1: vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.
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