School holidays as a small business owner can really suck. There. I said it!

As much as I love the opportunity to spend more time with my kids, the business demands don’t just stop because school does… am I right?!

Okay, now we’ve got that little rant out of the way, let’s talk about reframing our approach to the holidays and some tips for how to blend work life and mum life.

First up: No matter how painful the holidays can feel when you’re doing the work-mum juggle, I really think it’s worth reminding ourselves that we truly don’t get that many holidays with our kids! One day we’ll look back and wish our kids still wanted to spend so much time with us and we’ll miss it… so do what you can to make and savour these memories while the opportunity is here in front of us. 

And now for some of my favourite, practical tips (that I definitely learned by getting it wrong many times!):

BULK SCHEDULING

The children, that is! Schedule things for the kids when they can all attend something AT THE SAME TIME. If you want to get some work done, there’s no point having one child in an activity and another (or two) still at home with you. That doesn’t work, I’ve tried it! My kids don’t all like to do the same things, but I still look for activities for each of them that happen at similar times so they are all being entertained in unison—even if that’s at separate locations. 

WORK PLANNING

Once you know what days you’re going to have available for work, plan them out. This time is more precious than ever, so the last thing you want to do is sit down at your desk and think “What do I actually need to do?”. You’ll end up wasting time and getting more frustrated at your own inefficiencies! 

COMMUNICATION

Let your customers and your team know when they can expect to hear from you. Be open and communicate with everyone that it is school holidays and your schedule is tighter than usual. Be specific about what that means for them, whether it’s changes to the times they can connect with you, a longer lead time on feedback etc. The same goes with your partner. If the parenting load falls to you during the holidays, make sure you’re communicating with your partner how they can support you on the weekends to give you a couple extra deep-work sessions to play catch up when you need it. 

ONE-ON-ONE TIME

In addition to finding time to work, it’s equally important to find time when you can be one on one with each of your kids. And again, plan it! Holidays give you the opportunity to be really conscious with how you’re going to spend your time. Perhaps you have a 1-hour window between drop off or pick-up times for different activities. Can you use this window to plan a milkshake or ice cream date with one of your little people? Make those memories every moment you can!

DOWNTIME AND BOUNDARIES

Don’t over schedule yourself or your children. Downtime is important and without it… you’re probably headed for meltdown central all around! At the same time, remember your boundaries. If you allow a movie night every evening, don’t be surprised when the kids start expecting movie nights again when school starts back! Have your family rules and communicate those with the kids before the school holidays start. Expectation management is key! 

And it goes without saying, but cut yourself some slack. Some days you’re going to nail the school holiday parenting gig, and other days it’s going to be a total sh*t show and your kids will be living and breathing sugar and screen time. And that’s okay. You’re doing your best! 

Enjoy this time while you still have small humans that want to spend time with you, and find unique ways to create memories that they can then tell stories about when they’re older.