Find the Fun.
Yes, we get it—that’s a suuuuuuper tall order right now, but any time you can find a pocket of levity, it’s sure to pay off. When a hurricane trapped the New Jersey transplants indoors at their new Florida home for a full weekend, Philomena, 6, Jovan Jr., 5, Domenica, 3, and Giovanna, 15 months, “were having these meltdowns and they were really just frazzled and frustrated and I was getting frazzled and frustrated,” said Oz.”They want to be able to expend all the energy that’s been trapped all week and they’re trapped inside.”
Realizing she was this close to a breaking point, “I was like, you know what? We’re going to spice it up, we’re going to flip things on their head,” she shared. “We’re going to make pancakes for lunch, we’re going to dive in on all the nitty gritty of the house we have not had a chance to get to because life just gets busy. We’re going to make fun out of things that are actually kind of chores.”
Admittedly, her kids are still at an age “where I can convince them that things like vacuuming are fun,” but her overall point works even on children who have long figured out that dusting isn’t a good time. ”When we’re really stressed and frazzled and frustrated, they know that,” Oz noted. “They pick up on that immediately and they read a lot into that. And they also likewise take a lot from when we feel happy and settled and like we’ve taken the time we need to get our head in a good space to come back to parenting with the most positive potential. And I try as much as I can—without making it stressful—to get to that headspace as often as possible.”