Don’t Over schedule Your Family

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Why You Shouldn’t Over Schedule Your Family

Do you over schedule your family? Maybe it’s not on purpose or maybe it is. Here is why families should consider laying off the over schedule carousel.

This post is one of a 13 part series: Incredibly Peaceful Moms. If you haven’t read this series yet and you want to go back to the beginning start with:

12 Habits of Incredibly Peaceful Moms. This will give you an overview of the topics that are covered during this post.

Below are the rest of the series posts:

Why Sibling Disagreements are Good For Your Kids

How to Give Your Child Back Their Free Time

Turn Off the Screens for Peace’s Sake

1 Secret to Go From Angry Mommy to Calm Mommy

Are you looking for ways to become a peaceful mom but you aren’t sure how?

I created a free planner for moms like me, who want to create a peaceful home but let the stress of never having it all together defeat them, because who really ever has it together? The best we can do is plan for peace and roll with the punches, right? If you want your free planner you can get it below!

Sometimes it is hard to remember, but peace starts in our families.

With all parents and families do on a daily basis, it’s often times easy to overlook the necessity of creating a peaceful home environment.

We’re too busy for that. Surely it’s not that important right?

We lose sight that our homes are supposed to be our safe haven. Our sanctuary away from the outside world. Our home is supposed to be a sanctuary for our spouse’s and our children as well.

Are you doing what you can to make your home a safe haven?

When my children and my husband walk through the door, I try my best to make sure it’s a peaceful place for them. This doesn’t mean I make sure everything is spotless and there’s no noise at all. Trust me, our house is probably the loudest house within miles.

No, making sure our home is peaceful for my family means I make it a place that anxiety is checked at the door. The weight of responsibility, hurt and anxiety doesn’t have room in our home. Anything that does not benefit family peace is not welcome.

What does it mean to have family peace?

Family peace means being watchful of anxieties your children are having, discord that is coming in between the family and what is affecting each and every family member.

Family peace is exactly as it says, peace within your family.

Families are the center of society. A person is built or torn down by their family. Many people carry the weight of having no peace inside their homes with them well into adulthood.

It’s hard today to focus on the peace of our family when everything is pulling us into a different direction. Your kid needs to be in 5 different activities at a time. Don’t forget the 3 hours of homework a night, but they need to be in bed by 8 pm so they are prepared to do it all over again tomorrow.

Moms need to work to provide just like the dads, but you come home with work weight and then you have the housework, homework responsibilities, dinner, bedtime. Even if you don’t work outside your home, being a stay at home mom or work from home mom carries their own set of weights. Dads carry their own weight too.

It’s too much.

No wonder family peace and family bonding gets pushed to the side.

Read: turn off screens for peace’s sake

One thing stealing family peace is the over schedule of ourselves and families.

A major factor in family peace getting pushed to the side is over scheduling.

We over schedule our kids’ time. And then we over schedule ourselves and families. We fill our days with everything that seems shiny and beneficial to our kids and ourselves. Then we take on our own set of responsibilities: work, housework, relationships, etc.

After all of this, some of us are even scared to say no when it comes to something being asked of us. Can you make the class cupcakes? Can you chaperone this field trip? Something came up, can you take johnny to camp for me? Yes, it’s great to be helpful to our friends, but not at the expense of your family peace.

Why do we buy into the idea that “doing everything” will bring us fulfillment as a person and family? Doing everything actually has the opposite affect. It can cause anxiety.

What can an over schedule do to our children and us?

Here are some things over scheduling can do to our children.

• Over scheduling can cause anxiety to flare up.
• Our child (and even us) may start to burn out, even if the activity is something they or we enjoy.
• We may begin to lose interest in things that previously brought us joy.
• Over scheduling may start causing conflict between spouses and parents and children.

Why will over scheduling lead to loss of peace?

If you are constantly over scheduling your family you may slowly start losing your family peace. Here are some reasons why.

• Over scheduling separates family time. You have less time for each other.
• Over scheduling may gives adults and children anxiety. You may start to feel anxious about everything that needs to get done and all your responsibility, which can lead to conflict and irritation.
• You may have so much on your plate you are never able to complete everything, even priorities.
• The more you do the less bonding time you have with family.
• You may begin to lose sight of what is truly important, relationships within your household.

What you can do to stop over scheduling your family?

The first step is figure out what is important to you and your family. What activities are absolutes? What does your child love? Do they love a certain sport or after school activity? What about you? Is there a hobby you look forward to every week? Write it down. Figure out what you absolutely want to keep.

Then figure out what you need to keep on your schedule. Non negotiable so to speak.

Then figure out what you can do without. What activities drain your joy? What is getting to be too much for you? Take those things off your schedule. You don’t need them. Having something that drains you is not beneficial to you, your family or the peace of your family and home life one bit.

Cross it out and kiss it goodbye. You don’t need it.

Lastly, get comfortable with saying NO. Sometimes we over schedule our families not because we want to, but because we aren’t comfortable with saying no. We take on too many commitments and before long it’s too late, we are burnt out.

This part is important so I’m going to say it again. Get comfortable with saying NO.

Family peace is important.

Why you ask? Because the health of your family will determine so much as your child grows. A peaceful family can be the safe haven your child and other family members need. A place they know they can always go no matter what. When they walk through the doors they are safe from the cruel world.

As mothers and wives, we can create that for our families with a little bit of work and a whole lot of paying attention.

What are some ways you keep the peace in your home? I would love to add your tip to my series! You can submit it here.

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