Crisis Control for Busy Families

​Back when my kids were still in grade school, we were hustling through our morning routine, when my daughter Emily came running to me. She announced that she could not find her school uniform jumper. I calmly ensured her that it was hanging in the laundry room, clean and ready to be put on. “It’s not there Mom!”She barked back.  I was confident that it was there so I told her to look again, sure that she would find it.  But of course, she didn’t find it, so with a sigh; I trudged into to the laundry room to retrieve it myself.  When I got there, I could not find it either, and I could feel anxiety and frustration boiling up inside me.  Now I was the one going into crisis mode.  We had to leave for school in 10 minutes; and it was going to be 95 degrees that day so wearing her hot pants were out of the question.

I knew for sure that it was hanging there yesterday…yet it had vanished mysteriously.  I ran around the house frantically looking for the jumper.  After 10 minutes of frenzied searching, my older daughter Maddie, was the one who happened to take notice of what my youngest one was wearing, Cassie, who was 6 had gotten dressed and was indeed ready to go, but her school jumper, which was supposed to go to her knees, nearly reached her ankles.  The mystery had been solved, and I laughed at myself for being so busy panicking that I hadn’t even noticed her. Jumpers were quickly traded and we piled into the car, arriving to school without a minute to spare.

Once the crisis had past, the whole event turned out to be quite amusing. Though, big picture, this was not a large issue, it still managed to derail our morning.  This is a perfect example of how one little mishap can turn a normal calm morning sour and stress levels can escalate in a heartbeat. We thought we had everything planned and ready to go, but still, unexpected chaos found its way into our home that morning.  If you are a parent, you know exactly what I mean, craziness can happen without warning.  It seems that these occasional crisis’s are simply part of family life and while we can’t avoid these roller coaster moments entirely, having helpful organizational routines in place for staying on top of things can go a long way to help us feel more in control when the unexpected does occur.  Routines give us a sense of security and predictability that bring us comfort.  They also help us to get more done and forget less.

Planning Sessions for Moms
One especially useful routine for minimizing family chaos, is scheduling a 20-30 minute planning session for yourself at the beginning of each week.  You can greatly reduce the day to day stress of managing a busy family and feel more in control by doing this one thing. I do mine on Mondays, but they can be done anytime that works best for you. If we dive into each week without taking the time to plan ahead, everything comes at us without warning and we feel like we are simply managing one crisis after another.
 
Use a weekly planning session to examine your calendar and make sure that you are prepared for each of the week’s upcoming activities and appointments. Add things like errands, household chores, meetings and phone calls to ensure that they will get done. This will help you to catch things that may have been overlooked, like two conflicting appointments or the fact that your daughter has her first soccer practice this week and still needs soccer cleats. Make a to-do list for any other tasks that need to get done as well.  You can also use this time to plan out your family’s meals for the week and make a quick grocery list for the items you need to pick up from the store.  By doing this, you should only need to visit the grocery store once a week, which will save you time. This planning session can also be used to make out a weekly chore chart for your kids and pay any bills that are due. 

If you can include a planning session in your weekly routine and stick with it, you will feel more prepared and in control on a daily basis. You will also get more done. More importantly, you will reduce the potential for any unexpected chaos that may be looming ahead.  Instill a little much needed peace into your family’s busy week and add weekly planning sessions to your calendar. 

Written By Laura Coufal
Clean & Clutter Free Professional Organizing Services

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