Time management is a balancing act for every American family as they search for ways to find more hours in a day. Yet blended families face unique challenges as they are generally:
- filled with multiple children
- full of activity
- bustling the kids from one home to the other for visitation
If color-coding your calendar and planning your meals a week in advance still doesn’t make you feel organized, read on for some more helpful time management tips for the blended family.
I. Take advantage of court-ordered visitation. It is difficult to say goodbye to your child as he leaves for a weekend visit with your ex-spouse. Yet the positive is now you have an entire weekend to spend with your new spouse. Take advantage of that time! Relish in it! Go on a date night. Tackle some house projects. Invite a neighbor over for dinner. Just don’t sit at home missing the kids until they return.
And if you both have children who visit their parents, try to schedule their visits on the same weekend. Then you will have those free weekends to enjoy one another.
If a man has recently married,
he must not be sent to war or have any other duty laid on him.
For one year he is to be free to stay at home
and bring happiness to the wife he has married.
– Deuteronomy 24:5, NIV
II. Ask the older children to watch the younger children. The beauty of blended families is that they often come with built-in babysitters. You can pay the older siblings or barter babysitting services for new clothes, gas money, or extra privileges.
III. Reevaluate and eliminate. If you recently remarried, then you have entered a new season in life. You are still adjusting to your blended family and you may need to reorient your life. As our seasons in life change, as our children grow older, our own lives need to make adjustments.
Take a look at your commitments. Evaluate which activities best suit your gifts, talents and interests. Then ask yourself, “Which of these can I do well without sacrificing my family time or placing an unnecessary burden on my family?” then eliminate any activity as needed.
but test them all; hold on to what is good –
– 1 Thessalonians 5:21, NIV
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