12 Tips for Winter Break: Survive the Break With Your Emotional Energy Intact!

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Winter break gives you a lot of unstructured time.

For kids and teens who run a little more anxious or overwhelmed, that unstructured time can lead to stress related behaviors. Yes, there’s a lot of fun to be had with family and presents and dinners and toys… and there’s a lot of potential for overwhelm.

When your kid is overwhelmed and acting out, it can feel like they’re ruining the holidays.

And you maybe feel bad for even thinking that… but the truth is, we put a lot of time and energy into making winter break and winter holidays fun. When things don’t go according to plan, or when we have our little one throwing a huge tantrum in front of your whole extended family, it can feel overwhelming for you as well!

How do we help with this?

We set up a framework for winter break that’s easy for everyone to follow.

Tip 1: Plan Ahead

Our top tip for parents is to PLAN AHEAD. What went well last year? What were the challenges? What do you want to try out differently this time?

You can’t prepare for everything, but you can set a great plan for winter break. Prep your schedule for these upcoming weeks - what’s going to happen and when? Go through this schedule with your kids. Figure out what time will be structure and what time will be unstructured. And, prepare your expectations and time management strategies.

Tip 2: Strategize

When you have expectations for your child’s behavior, it’s important to set your kid up for success. Some parents tell me they want to “test” their kids - which I get. But at the same time, why not coach your kid rather than test them. There will be plenty of opportunities to see how they handle things - use winter break as a time to focus on the positives, and really praise their positive choices.

If you have an expectation about screen time (which is probably different over break than during the school year), talk through that with your kids and get their take. If bedtime or curfew is later - or if it’s not - walk through that decision making process with your kids and teens.

And, plan through how you want to respond to things when you’re kid 1. isn’t following directions or 2. isn’t able to comply. You need your strategy IN PLACE before winter break.

Tip 3: Time On and Time Off

The majority of our parents are over-scheduled - and their kids are, too. It’s awesome to have so many things going on! But it’s really, really easy to over-schedule yourself. Over winter break, make sure that you’re managing your time well - and that you’re allowing yourself to have some space to opt out.

Focus on structured time and unstructured time. Time for chores and time for fun. Time at home and time outside. There’s SO MUCH TIME in the day and yet, somehow, winter break ends up going a lot faster than weeks during the school year. So make sure to get the most time possible with your kids, and make it really quality time.

Another way to make sure you're getting enough of this in? For every structured activity you and your family do, balance it out with some more unstructured free time. Follow up that family trip to see the Missouri Botanical Garden lights with free time at home before bed. Have your kids follow the rules at a friend's cookie decorating party, and then let them run off all the extra energy in the backyard. Whenever there are times where people need to really follow the rules, make sure to balance it out with time that it's less important. (And that way, you as a parent get some time off, too).

Is Winter Break a challenge for you? Do you feel totally overwhelmed every year? It can be tough to keep things running smoothly when there’s so much time to fill - and especially tough for anxious, stressed out kids and teens (and their stressed out parents). We’re sharing with you our 12 Tips for Winter Break - but we’re available all year round for anxious child counseling, therapy for teens, and stress management for college students. Set up your free phone consult on our website at compassionatecounselingstl.com/consult

We work with kids, teens, and college students through the St. Louis region, including Clayton, Ladue, Webster Groves, Kirkwood, and Creve Couer.