Just Say NO to Calendar Overdrive

It’s important to say YES to yourself as a person and do things that make you happy. But sometimes, you need to say NO to calendar overdrive in order to preserve your happiness. 

I yearn for warmer weather, outdoor activities, and opportunities for casual social gatherings all winter long. There is always a flurry of invitations.

Sure, I can make that baby shower.

Awesome, looking forward to your birthday party.

Moms’ night out? Fantastic, sign me up.

But soon, calendar overdrive takes over.

Grrr, another event on that day?

Rock, paper, scissors, who goes to what this weekend.

How much time are we spending at the party versus driving to and from the party?

Then add in work, and the regular afterschool activities and sports. Most Sunday nights, I collapse into bed and ask, “Where did the weekend go?” So, I decided to regroup and start clean.

I took my calendar out, color-coded and all, and started thinking about myself and the quality of life I wanted for my family. 

I’ll be honest, the first 3-4 events I took off the calendar were hard.

Oh, but they always come to our party.

We haven’t seen them in so long.

By the fifth scratched-off obligation, I felt like a weight was lifted. Maybe only one event a weekend was all we needed as a family with two working parents so we could actually enjoy family time.

There are some weekends that we are still a little more programmed than I’d like, but as a friend said, “There are worse things than having a lot of people that want to hang out with you.” True, but I think I like my family and downtime a little more these days.

We are trying to transition the whole family to have fewer electronics and more outdoor time, less time being shuttled around in a car, and more time just playing.

By saying “no” more to the outside world, I’m actually still saying “yes” to me in the best way possible!