It’s the most magical time of the year, but who are we kidding, it feels more like the most stressful time of the year. Why is that? The holiday season adds a ton of additional responsibilities to our plate. Who does the majority of that responsibility typically fall on? Mom. This year can be different. Let the Fair Play method (a method designed to help share the load) help you de-stress the holiday season.
If you need an introduction to Fair Play, start here before reading along. Hosting, mailing cards, decorating, buying gifts, wrapping, dealing with family, managing budgets are just a few of the activities on our plate around the holidays.
Rooted in societal pressure and picture perfect instagram images, we put a ton of pressure on ourselves to create the most magical holiday season for our families.
What if we paused and asked ourselves, do we really need it at all and who are we actually doing this for?
Step one in de-stressing the holidays is mapping your planned holiday activities to your family values
As a family, sit down and map out all of the extra’s you plan on adding to your plate this time of year. Together, explore why they are important to you, which value you they are tied to and are they really necessary? You may feel surprise to realize that some things aren’t actually needed. By eliminating them, it will free up time to do more of the things you and your family want to.
Establish the MSC
Once your list of holiday responsibilities has been determined, it’s time to establish the MSC (minimum standard of care). This will require a collaborative discussion with your family about what is a reasonable expectation for each holiday task in your home.
It is ultimately about minimizing disappointment and maximizing trust in the relationship.
To establish the MSC you must ask yourselves a series of questions.
Let’s look at wrapping as an example:
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Which gifts will we wrap?
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If all of them, will we do it or outsource it?
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If we are wrapping, do we have paper, scissors and tape?
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Will we use bows?
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Are gift bags okay?
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Where will gifts go after wrapping?
Assign the CPE
The next step is to assign the responsibility. Whoever owns it, will own the full task. Each responsibility has three components: conception, plan and execution. Conceptualizing and planning are primarily mental tasks. They answer, what does this responsibility look like and how do I get it done. Execution is the actual doing. So often, mom’s handle all of the C and the P and then delegate the E. They then wonder why they still feel exhausted, stressed and overburdened. It’s not always obvious, but the C&P take a ton of effort. In many cases, the execution is the easiest of the three components.
Let Fair Play help you de-stress the holiday season, the owner of the activity will own the full C,P & E which will release everyone else from the responsibility completely.
Let’s go back to wrapping and break down the CPE for whoever is assigned to this activity (The MSC will be the guide. For this example let’s say wrapping is happening inside of the home and gift bags are okay.)
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Figure out when to wrap. Will there be one or multiple sessions?
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Determine how many gifts need to be wrapping so you can purchase supplies
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Establish a wrapping place and time, when and where will wrapping take place. Take into account other people being in the house and keeping gifts private, if needed.
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Purchase wrapping supplies
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Execute the wrapping plan and place the gifts where they belong
By using the Fair Play Method this holiday season, the entire family can feel the magic vs. the stress. No more empty stockings for mom or fights over who’s buying gifts. Get ahead of things and set yourself up to thrive!
