If you are reading this you must be struggling to balance marriage and family life. Well, I am going to share with you the secret to my success in balancing marriage and family life.
The secret is pretty simple: a strong marriage = a strong family. With the support of each other in the marriage to lean on you, both will develop into better parents while having fun doing life together.
Does it all sound too simple? If you are struggling with balancing family life I have 7 Successful Tips For Balancing Marriage and Family Life that will make your life a little more satisfying.
7 Tips for Balancing Marriage and Family Life
1. Never Stop Dating Your Spouse
You may or may not have had kids before marriage. One thing is for certain, whether you did or didn’t with each new addition to your family things change. Schedules get busier and you have to learn how to balance even more responsibilities while managing to not neglect everything else.
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First, you should never get so busy that you stop having dates with your spouse. I don’t care how busy my husband and I get we turn just about every outing into a date, with kids in tow and ALL!
During the week we try to go out for a coffee date at least once. In addition, on the weekends we make coffee dates a priority. Something else we enjoy are Friday night Home Depot dates. That’s when we plan our weekend home projects and gather all of our supplies.
You can make the most out of your time together. And as long as you make time, no matter what you are doing- that quality time is worth every moment. Who said dates have to be traditional sitdown dinners? Since COVID-19 we stopped going out to restaurants and I personally am not comfortable sitting down in a restaurant setting for dinner, so we improvise and have grown creative when it comes to our dates.
Most importantly, we are still making dating each other a priority, kids, and all.
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2. Spend Time With Your Children
Spending sufficient time with your children is also a top priority, especially if you have multiple children of varying ages. Each child has their own temperament and personality and their needs are different.
Equally, divide your time among your children individually in order to get to know them and bond with them. Our children are constantly growing and in the blink of an eye, they will be grown and not want to hang out with us as much as they do now.
Some ways you can incorporate more time with your children would be setting time aside to:
- Read a bedtime story before bed
- Ride bikes together
- Play board games
- go on walks
I highly recommend engaging in activities that your children enjoy. Make the day about them. And most importantly, enjoy and cherish these moments because they won’t be little for long.
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3. Manage A Family Calendar
Organization is key to balance marriage and family life. Multiple kids translate to multiple activities, and multiple events to remember.
Managing a calendar can definitely save more time for the fun stuff if we plan out events and even plan out our weekly meals. For example, we just had a virtual back to school night and because I planned for this event in advance, I had dinner planned. Dinner was a quick Stoffers meal for the family. This saved me a lot of time since it didn’t require any preparation. As a result, I was able to help our daughter with her homework, get the kids fed, showered, and in bed before the meeting began.
Keeping a family calendar keeps our household organized and more balanced. It’s worth creating in order to balance marriage and family life.
4. Make Household Chores Fun Together
As a mother, I learned that if you want to get more done you have two options either do it yourself and burn out or simply don’t go against the grain. What do I mean by that? Well…
Responsibilities of household chores do not have to be a dread. And here is why:
I enjoy doing laundry so I would never give this task to anyone else in the house.
Hubby enjoys cleaning. So, if I cook I can count on him to clean the kitchen up after dinner.
Abby loves taking out the trash, picking up the mail and newspaper, and loading/unloading the dishwasher.
Baby Andrew- TDB [currently training him how to clean up after himself]
Make household chores fun by delegating chores based on what that household member enjoys. Chores don’t have to be a bore, we like to turn on music and race to finish chores. The earlier we finish chores the more time we have available to talk, read, or play a game. This really motivates the kids to knock out their chores.
5. Do Not Bring Work Home
This topic is just as simple as said. Do not bring work home.
- Disable work email notifications
- Zip It! – Don’t discuss work at home
Many people find it challenging to separate work from their home life. There has to be a separation. When you are at home, be present at home and leave work tasks for work. Never mix the two. Unplugging from work is the best way to balance marriage and family life.
6. Don’t Skip Vacation
Our family has vowed to NEVER skip a vacation. However, thanks to COVID-19 vacation has been a little different this year. Time away with new scenery is needed.
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Vacation means no household responsibilities. I honestly only truly rest when on vacation away from home. I say this because, at home, there is always going to be something for me to do. Something to organize or a project that needs finishing.
Vacation allows you to break away from your typical routines and work. And vacation allows you to have quality time with your spouse and family. So, never skip a vacation.
7. Limit Screen Time Distractions
We have set rules in our household. Rule #1, no screens allowed at the dinner table or in the bedrooms.
Family time is limited especially throughout the week due to work and school so I have made it a priority in our family that we not be consumed with the distractions of screen time.
Our family sits down and eats dinner together after blessing our food. We use dinner time to talk about our day and other important topics. Topics usually consist of a lot of questions from the kids on how things work and other questions about the bible. This is another way we balance marriage and family life.
We use this time to discuss our passions and openly communicate about how we are feeling. By not allowing screen time during dinner, everyone is the most present in the conversation and it really helps us to connect and be more attentive to each other since there are no screen distractions.
We have a set charging station set up in our living room. This is because we do not allow screens in the bedrooms. I believe your sleeping space should also be free of distractions.
When you charge your phones in your bedroom, you can easily be consumed by social media and other unimportant apps which can distract you not only from a good night’s sleep but from also being attentive to your spouse.
My Message To You
These 7 Successful Tips for Balancing Marriage and Family Life are simple strategies that you can start today in order to bring balance back into your life. I promise that you will be able to see results in both your marriage and family life if you start implementing these 7 helpful tips today.
What strategies are you currently using to bring balance to your marriage and family life? Are there any strategies that you are currently using that I have not mentioned above? Share your experiences in the comments. I would love to hear your strategies and tips that you have found to be the most successful in your marriage and family life.
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