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 that Christmas tends not to really be over
Speaker 1: on December twenty fifth. Many people are still off work,
Speaker 1: but even if they aren't, many kids are still off
Speaker 1: of school. To avoid going stir crazy, it is best
Speaker 1: to figure out a plan for this post holiday time
Speaker 1: of year. Don't let it catch you by surprise. A
Speaker 1: lot of December is spent in the build up to Christmas.
Speaker 1: If your family celebrates this holiday, and particularly if you
Speaker 1: do stockings and presents on Christmas Morning, then a lot
Speaker 1: of the holiday prep does have to happen by then.
Speaker 1: But then what My kids are generally out of school
Speaker 1: until January first teach year this year. Since January first
Speaker 1: is on a Thursday, they go back to school on Monday,
Speaker 1: January fifth. I don't have to tell you that there
Speaker 1: is a lot of time between December twenty fourth and
Speaker 1: January fifth. This is one reason we are traveling this year,
Speaker 1: but we don't always, and even someone taking a few
Speaker 1: days away would still have a lot of days to
Speaker 1: work with. Not everyone gets this many vacation days either,
Speaker 1: so best to come up with a plan, so each
Speaker 1: day is a repeat of those early days of COVID
Speaker 1: when we were trying to work with kids at home underfoot.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure how many people remember that time fondly. First,
Speaker 1: if you do plan to work, then you and your
Speaker 1: partner if you have one, need to figure out a
Speaker 1: schedule for who is with the kids. You could trade
Speaker 1: off and each party could take the kids out to
Speaker 1: various trampoline parks or science museums or what have you
Speaker 1: each day, or you could enroll your kids in a
Speaker 1: break camp, which many communities have, as do many commercial
Speaker 1: establishments like rock climbing gyms. Even if you do plan
Speaker 1: to take all these days off work, you are probably
Speaker 1: going to want at least something of a break, So
Speaker 1: establish a few hours at least when you will trade
Speaker 1: off with your partner or you will hire a babysitter.
Speaker 1: As for the time you are covering, why not make
Speaker 1: a post holiday fund list. There might be items from
Speaker 1: your original holiday fund list that you haven't gotten to
Speaker 1: yet but that are still available, or you might want
Speaker 1: to repeat them. For instance, if you wanted to go
Speaker 1: ice skating, I am guessing that your ice skating rink
Speaker 1: doesn't close after Christmas, Lots of light displays will still
Speaker 1: be lit. The Nutcracker may still be being performed. Indeed,
Speaker 1: these are all things even people who aren't tending small
Speaker 1: kids might choose to do to stretch out the holiday fun.
Speaker 1: If the weather is terrible in your part of the
Speaker 1: world in late December and early January, you might look
Speaker 1: for some indoor fun. Make a list of the indoor
Speaker 1: options for families in your community and create a rough schedule.
Speaker 1: When can you go to a movie? When should you
Speaker 1: do an escape room? For bonus points, you might try
Speaker 1: to get other people to join you. Speaking of which,
Speaker 1: play dates are a great way to fill the post
Speaker 1: Christmas hours. Over the holidays, it might be possible to
Speaker 1: have more of a family playdate. Go hang out with
Speaker 1: another family and the kids can play in one area
Speaker 1: while the adults chat in another. You might make visits
Speaker 1: to extended family members. Indeed, it can be fun to
Speaker 1: have an extended family celebration after Christmas so you can
Speaker 1: stretch out the gift giving fun. And who knows, maybe
Speaker 1: some relatives will take the kids for a bit while
Speaker 1: you are there, giving mom and dad a break. We
Speaker 1: often plan tightly in the weeks before Christmas, because there
Speaker 1: is so much schedule during this time. It is not
Speaker 1: easy to get to all the holiday performances and parties
Speaker 1: and get enough work done to be ahead of the
Speaker 1: game for the time off over the holidays. But then
Speaker 1: we get to the holidays and everything is a lot
Speaker 1: less tight. That is fine in some ways, but when
Speaker 1: your kids have been watching YouTube for ten hours straight
Speaker 1: but still interrupting you every ten minutes, things might feel
Speaker 1: a little bit crazy. Making best to avoid that if possible.
Speaker 1: Think through the week after Christmas, and you might just
Speaker 1: feel festive and merry rather than harried. And I want
Speaker 1: that for everyone listening to this in the meantime, This
Speaker 1: is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the
Speaker 1: most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
Speaker 1: If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
Speaker 1: me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
Speaker 1: please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.