How dad-of-four Sam Wood deals with school holiday burnout
By Sam Wood|
Firstly, let me say I'm definitely someone who does deal with burnout when it comes to school holidays.
In fact, I find now with three kids at school it's incredible to see the difference it makes when all kids are at home.
For me, the need and want to have a holiday is threefold; for my kids - adventures, seeing new things and quality time together, alongside giving Snez a break, and giving us both a break as a couple, even if that means a change in environment.
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As a business owner I've always found it really hard to switch off and the consequence of this is you're not present anywhere; you're not on holiday and you're not working - you're not pleasing anyone.
I want to talk about burnout because it really dawned on me during the previous Easter school holiday period. I also need to acknowledge that I am so fortunate that I can take time off.
Getting that balance right of four components; children, relationship with partner, myself and work, it's a perpetual exercise of cable pulling. I pull this cable, but while one cable goes up another comes down.
Harper needs a lot of one-on-one care, the two little ones are three and five, and desperate to do activities constantly, and Evie wants to enjoy her last school holidays without wasting it.
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Snez and I want to do all of this with the kids but also have work commitments, and you feel like you're damned if you do and damned if you don't.
It suddenly comes around very fast to the school holiday break and you either take time off work and spend time with the kids and then feel guilty that you're not allocating enough time to work, and feel that the kids could be doing more, or having a better day, or you should be supporting Snez.
These are the ways that I try and deal with juggling school holidays and work:
1. Carve out specific time periods for efficient work to be done.
This is not whole days but one to two-hour blocks. I know I'm very fortunate my job allows me to do this and I'm not saying that every vacation has this luxury, but I have found that open communication with your team about when you are available, and when you're not, is vital.
When you are with your children, be present in the moment. There's no point being physically present if you're not there mentally present.
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2. Remind yourself that a few full days off won't be the end of the world.
You often tell yourself that the world is going to end if you take a few days off. And once you finally do come back to work you realise that it worked out completely fine and you need to trust it will all be OK.
3. Utilise technology.
COVID has made everyone so comfortable with virtual meetings and this means of communication จC use this to your advantage.
School holidays can be all-consuming and sometimes this means you put on the backburner doing things for yourself.
Make sure that when you find that window of opportunity to do things for yourself that it is focused on filling your cup, not emptying it. And what I mean is don't try and jam-pack everything all at once.
Listen to your body, take this time to reflect on what you need to help recharge, and that might be going on a date with your partner, exercising with a friend or yourself, or even just simply relaxing and doing nothing.
My golden rule is when you are there, be there wholeheartedly, so you can enjoy each moment that the beautiful, school holiday chaos brings.
Until next school holidays,
Sam x
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