5 Tips on How to Nurture a Relationship During School Holidays

School holidays provide your children with a break from their monotonous everyday routine of life at school, while also allowing spending quality time with family doing things everyone enjoys.

Unfortunately, while school holidays are supposed to be all about relaxing and having fun together as a family, they can be extremely stressful, tiring, and completely overwhelming.

School holidays are often a difficult time for some parents, especially parents who have to work.

Even if you are spending time with family at home, finding a work-life balance is often difficult, keeping children constantly entertained is never easy, and childcare can be expensive.

But if you work together and get it right, school holidays can end up being heaps of fun for the whole family, including you.

It seems like everyone has their own horror story about how they spent their entire holidays arguing with their partner. That’s because, during the holidays, all bets are off, so even the happiest and high-functioning couples can ultimately have some truly challenging experiences.

We’re often so busy trying to keep our children happy and content, but many experts believe that it’s your marriage that needs the most nurturing.

With that in mind, here are some tips on how to nurture a relationship and make it stronger than ever.

1. Maintain a routine

Why are routines important to nurture a relationship?

A recent paper reviewing the empirical evidence supporting a nightly bedtime routine early childhood suggested that promoting a bedtime routine can promote positive early childhood development worldwide, particularly for socioeconomically disadvantaged and other at-risk young children.

Every family should have their unique routines to help keep things organized and get things done, as well as spending time together and having fun.

Schedules and routines are the most effective method of informing everyone about who should be doing what, while also ensuring your children understand what’s important to your family.

Schedule some time for all daily tasks such as exercising, cooking, relaxing, mealtimes, and other tasks that need to be completed.

Don’t forget to plan for any seasonal things that need to be done, like buying eggs at Easter, wrapping presents at Christmas, and planning get-togethers with friends and family for new years.

Keeping these routines up to date can reassure the whole family as they make your lives more steady and healthy.

2. Limit your workload

How to balance work and life is always a challenge, which is why one of these aspects of our lives often seems to suffer.

But while it may not be easy, it’s important to remember that attaining that work-life balance can significantly impact your ability to nurture a relationship with your family.

Simply by limiting your workload, you’ll be able to find the time to do something for yourself regularly.

Whether it is a 15-minute walk, having coffee with friends, watching some TV, listening to music, or just having a nap, the important thing is you give yourself enough of a break to reset your brain from any lingering stress around you.

3. Organize The Kids

Whether you have two, four, or even more weeks ahead of holidays, it always pays to plan by creating a shortlist of things to do with the kids.

It doesn’t need to be a massive list with all types of entertainment possibilities, but rather a few ideas that you can plan for in advance.

The fact is that your children will usually enjoy simply being around you for even the shortest time each day.

To nurture a relationship with your kids, get them involved, and clean out the garage together, throwing out anything that isn’t of any use to reuse or repurpose some old junk.

They can help you water the garden, paint the fence, or take the dog for a walk around the block. As long as you’re in a good mood and attentively listening to them, they’re sure to be happy.

Also watch: How to work from home with kids.

4. Involve Your Friends & Extended Family

Your friends who also have children will most likely also be looking for ways to entertain their children during school holidays.

Alternating between days of looking after each other’s children is mutually beneficial for everyone.

You both get a day off to spend time with your partners, but you’ll have more energy on the days you spend with the kids, and they’ll love spending time with other children. It is a win-win-win situation all around.

School holidays are also an excellent time to draw on the rest of your family’s resources, which allows your children to nurture a relationship with their grandparents, cousins, or other relatives.

Depending on travel distances, the age of your children, and their willingness to help out, you may decide to let them have a sleep-over or a pool party.

It’s amazing how refreshing it can be waking up beside your partner in a house without children for a day.

5. Plan activities together

Every family member comes into school holiday time with their ideas and expectations of how things will be.

While it is fairly reasonable to want time to do what you want to do, you should also plan for some activities for kids each day that the whole family can enjoy together.

From mountain biking to laying on the beach, or simply playing a quick game spotlight in the backyard before bedtime, planning day trips and other activities together will ultimately nurture a relationship and strengthen your family connections.

Unsurprisingly, activities like these are quite often the strongest and fondest holiday memories that both parents and children will look back on fondly for many years to come.

From summer days on the beach and camping in the mountains to spending time together at home, and everything in between… remember that school holidays should always be an enjoyable experience for the whole family.