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With the start of the school year just around the corner, couples and families are at great risk of quickly becoming overwhelmed by their various schedules and tasks. To help them cope, a network of marriage counselors has shared their three main recommendations for a peaceful life as a couple and family.
Ready to get your foot in the door of the back-to-school spiral? In a few days, various appointments, busy schedules, and children’s activities will punctuate your weeks like a marathon. At the risk of exhausting you, personally, but also as a couple of parents. To deal with it, Coopleo.care, the first platform 100% dedicated to family health, has sorted through all the advice from couples therapists in its network to find the 3 most useful and most widely given tips. Here are 3 actions not to forget.
Make time for each other
So to find time with family, and to recharge your batteries without losing your nerves, therapists first advise taking care of your relationship for 86% of recommendations. That is to say, plan regular appointments for two, despite the tumult of the start of the school year. and make it a priority.
“The start of the school year is not just a marathon of meetings and obligations, it is also a time to design the year to come and the priorities that we want to set for ourselves. Taking time together and organizing life as a couple around regular meetings is de facto deciding to invest in your relationship simply”, underlines Marie Sophie Peytou, marriage and family counselor in Lyon in the Coopleo press release.
Being in family communication
The second recommendation for 72% of therapists is to engage in conversations about family functioning, as a couple and with children (72% of recommendations). That is, to be transparent about expectations, efforts, feelings.
“It is appropriate during a new school year to discover, to share together our worries, our desires, our needs, our dreams to rejoice and support each other! A shared joy is a double joy! A shared sorrow becomes half sorrow”, recalls Marie Liberge, marriage and family counselor in Clermont-Ferrand.
Share the mental load as much as possible
Finally, the third important recommendation (for 51% of therapists) targets the organization of the schedule (activities, school outings, etc.) which must be done as a couple, as much as possible. But which must also know how to leave certain things aside, to preserve the couple and the family.
“I think it’s important to accept that we can’t do everything. We have to know how to say no to a back-to-school meeting, an extracurricular activity for our children, an “obligation”… Prioritize weekends that leave time for the couple and the family,” adds Claire Baratte, therapist in Bordeaux.
Three tips to try to apply starting next week to get the year off to a good start.
Slideshow: 12 organizational tips for a successful back-to-school season