Although every season has its craziness, I’m pretty sure our busiest time of year is spring because our daughter is on not one, not two, but three different softball teams. This is a first for us this year because she typically plays rec and travel ball. Now she’s in junior high and will play for the school, too. How do we manage all of her practices and games, while still getting her to dance and piano, and her brother to martial arts and wrestling, while still keeping everyone alive? Read on to learn how keeping a family calendar keeps us all on track.
Listen, I’m not saying I totally agree with three softball teams. I personally think it’s a bit much, but when your daughter truly loves the sport, gets all of her homework done, has a healthy social life, and still gets straight As, how can you tell her no? What else is being a mom about if we’re not serving our children?
With that being said, we need to ensure we’re serving all of our children equally while still being a loving wife who nurtures her marriage. This is why it’s so important to keep a family calendar that streamlines all of life’s activities. It allows you to spend your time equally in all areas of your life, streamline communication, and reduce stress by having the whole family contribute to its maintenance.
Share the Love
It’s important that we spend equal amounts of time on everyone in the family, which includes taking care of ourselves. There are not enough hours in the day if we are not using them wisely. By keeping a family calendar, all of your activities are in one place. Whether you’re using a digital or physical calendar, it is important that all family members have access and are taught how to use it. Everyone needs to get in the habit of checking it daily so they know the schedule and expectations for the day.
We don’t just use our calendar for kids’ activities. We also schedule chores, date nights, workouts, family outings, friend visits, parties, and anything else that requires us to be somewhere or do something. Putting all of this in the calendar shows us where we’re spending our time and when we have downtime.
Since our daughter is involved in more activities than our son, we know that we drag him to a lot of her stuff. Because of this, we then plan activities that are just for him, like a fishing trip. This is important because we don’t want our son to feel like we don’t have time for him. Because his activities don’t have as many competitions as our daughter’s, we need to find other ways to show him our support. Even if we don’t go somewhere with him, we will sit and do legos, read a book, or play video or board games with him.
My husband and I also look at the calendar to fit in time for ourselves and for our relationship. I know which days are super busy with running both kids all night, so I don’t plan a workout that night. We also know which nights both kids are at activities so we can hit up a restaurant to grab dinner while we’re waiting to pick them up. When you are aware of every minute of your schedule, you can use every minute wisely. And when I say every minute, you don’t have to fill each one up. It’s ok to do nothing, especially when you’re running most of the time. Don’t be afraid to literally schedule “relaxation” in your calendar.
Streamline Communication
I don’t have to answer the annoying questions like, “What time is dance?” or “When does practice end?” or “Do we have anything going on this weekend?” because everyone in my family knows how to pull up their calendar and look at our events. We always put the start and end times and the location of every activity. If someone does ask me, I tell them kindly that I have to pull up the schedule to look, so they can do that for themselves. This teaches everyone to use their resources instead of having me enable their behaviors of not following the calendar. This may seem a bit harsh, but habits get formed from routines. If I do the work for them, they will not develop a good routine of utilizing a calendar that keeps them organized. Remember, we are not only keeping our own lives orderly, but we are teaching our children how to run an efficient life when they are adults themselves. This is a skill that can be taught, and it is our responsibility to do so.
The Whole Family Takes Ownership
If your kids are old enough to read and understand the family calendar, they are old enough to contribute to it. If our kids have a change in an event, they can edit it themselves. They can also add other activities, like hanging out with friends, but they are required to run it by us first. Again, having kids contribute to the calendar teaches them important life skills. These skills then transfer to school, their adulthood, and future work.
The family’s responsibility to edit the calendar also takes some pressure off of your shoulders. If my husband has my son at martial arts and they announce belt testing dates, he inputs that in the calendar immediately, I get an alert, and we’re all aware of his testing date. By doing this, we don’t miss important activities because it gets taken care of right away. Check out my last blog or podcast to learn what unfortunately happens if you don’t put activities in your calendar right away!
If you aren’t sure where to start with a family calendar, check out my Editable Family Calendar. I created this calendar to help those who struggle with time management because you can literally see where you’re spending all of your time. This calendar is broken down into 15-minute increments. A calendar like this allows you to plan travel time, meal prep time, activity time, and even bedtime. You may not need support like this forever, but if you struggle to manage a calendar, this would be a great place to start. I also offer 30-minute free consultations, so if you would like some coaching on managing a calendar, feel free to contact me.
Keeping a calendar is extremely important so you can manage your time equally among the whole family, improve your communication by having all of your information in one place, and release some of that ownership onto your family. If you found this blog to be helpful, I’d greatly appreciate you sharing it with friends and family who may also benefit.
