It’s a real balancing act; I won’t lie to you. The key to keeping your family household sane and happy is to fake it until you make it. And by that, what I really mean is that you have to fake retaining some semblance of sanity… and then keep on faking it. Once you become an adult, it’s hard to truly switch off the “worrying” switch in your head but that doesn’t mean you can’t try. The most important thing is to, at least, keep your kids happy and sane. That is, in itself, a form of sanity, right?
Believe it or not, a happy family life isn’t out of reach for the parents too. It just requires a little hard work and effort to ensure that everybody in the household gets a little relaxation and peace. If you’re not sure that your household currently exists in that peaceful and calm state of existence then here are some pieces of advice which might just help you improve your situation.
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Everybody helps.
The most stressful thing for any parent in any household is keeping the place from looking like a landfill site. You spend hours making the place look clean (or as near to “clean” as humanly possible) and then the kids come home, mess the whole place up, and you have to start all over again. It’s no wonder that you never truly have any time for yourself and struggle to hold onto your calm and loving parent voice.
The best way to remedy this situation is to start an “everybody helps” policy. You can do this by thinking of fun ways to get the kids involved with keeping the household looking nice. It’s okay to trick your little ones when it’s in their best interests. You could start cleaning games to get your children excited about the prospect of cleaning the dishes and cleaning their own rooms. You could give them treats for getting their chores done; pocket money or fun days out, for example. Make sure you keep things equal between your children if you want to avoid arguments, however. Most importantly, you’ll be teaching your little ones to look after themselves, and that’ll be one less thing for you to worry about. It’s so important to kelp your kids to become independent.
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Safety.
One of the other things which probably gives you a headache around the household is the safety of the kids (and perhaps even you, as the parents, if you’re worried about tripping over toys or other things left lying around). A safe household starts with everyone pitching in to help keep it tidy, as mentioned above. Creating more storage space for loose items might help, and you should encourage everybody in the house to put things back in their “homes” before they leave a room.
You also need to think about ways in which you can keep your kids safe when you don’t have your eye on them; you can’t watch them like a hawk 24/7. When it comes to modern day things such as technology, you might want to look into getting a safe app for kids on your tablet or phone. You don’t want to go on your device after a long day and find out that your bank account is half-empty because your kid wanted some of the bonus features on a mobile game.
Above all else, being a happy family is about everyone being there for one another. There will be ups and downs and you might all drive each other crazy from time to time, but a saner household starts with everybody doing their part to make life easier for one another.