I’ve made a distressing discovery: I noticed that balancing family life and work and fitness is tricky. And pent-up stress is no good. And since you have had kids you can’t afford the gym or have time for a relaxing run.
But fear not! I’ve come up with a list of 3 stress-beating, family-friendly activities! Soon I’ll have an infomercial on one of those channels no one ever really watches. But first, here they are for you.
- Wrestle – my boys’ love language is wrestling and their favourite kind is where you wrestle right on the edge of fun and ‘it’ll all end I tears’. For my own amusement, I mostly take on the roles of various of WWF wrestlers from the 90s. This afternoon I was the ultimate warrior. The WWF reference is lost on the boys but it certainly helps me focus on the task at hand. It’s hard to be thinking about work deadlines when your tie is around your head and you’re power slamming a 3-year-old.
- Read. Sure it’s ‘Dinosaurs Love Tacos’ but hey. Reading is reading, and studies say that just six minutes can reduce your stress levels by more than two thirds. It must be true because I read it on the internet. In six minutes I can read ‘The Gruffalo’ twice if I do it quickly. One and a bit times if I make an effort with the voices which I’m pretty sure adds to the destressing merit of the process.
- Throw stuff. Good news – the kids wreck everything anyway so why fight it? Break everything you own. It’s freeing to live with broken possessions or possessions you just can’t find because they’re in your wife’s wellie or something. Seriously it’s been days since I saw my work phone but hey… That means no one can bother me.
Try it for a week and watch the stress melt away.
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