The Top 10 Tips for Planning a Holiday Class Party [Episode 21]

[00:00:00] Emily: Hey there, friends. Welcome back to the Holiday Head Start podcast. Today we are sharing all of the tips and tricks we’ve picked up from two decades of class parties and sharing them with you. But

 

[00:00:12] Heidi: first we have a tradition spotlight. Traditions are an important tool in building a healthy, happy, connected life.

 

And this week we have a favorite tradition from Emily. Emily, why don’t you tell us about your half birthdays?

 

[00:00:25] Emily: So ever since my kids were little, I think I started this when my oldest was turning three and a half. We celebrate half birthdays. And the key to this is that I set it up. Very low key and I’ve kept it low key and that’s the only reason that I have managed to keep this up for so many years.

 

All we do is I pick up a cake from the store and I cut it in half and I put out enough birthday candles for their birthday plus I push one in. Mostly into the cake. So it looks like a half candle and then I, they get one small present. And I do mean small, like, $10 20 at the most. If there’s something I wanna sneak in for a half birthday gift,

 

or a gift that was left over from Christmas. Oh, that frequently happens, especially with my son whose half birthday is early in January. His is almost always left over from Christmas. Then we just get together, like with the fam, and sing happy half birthday to you. And Blow out the 11 and a half candles or however many it is and open the present and ta da!

 

Half birthday achieved. I have wanted to expand this a tiny bit and get a half birthday banner or special candles I have metal Candle holders that have numbers. So you put it into the cake and it’s like, you, then you stick the candle into the number on the top.

 

I don’t know if I’ve used them, but I have them. I got them for Christmas last year, I think. They didn’t come with a half and I can’t find a half that matches those. Oh, sad. Anyway, that, so I do, I would like to just add a couple more little touches to this, but I’m having a hard time because half birthdays are not really a marketable thing at the scene.

 

That

 

[00:02:11] Heidi: is true. Also, I think you hit the point that like And anything you start, you have to continue. So it’s like, am I willing to be married to this for the next decade?

 

[00:02:21] Emily: Yes. So whatever you do, start it. So basic. I’m pretty sure the first time I did it with my three year old, what she got was like 10 maybe.

 

Like it was, it was so low key and their expectations are low because of that. So it’s just easy. Oh. And I pull out the, you are special plate. So they eat off of that. Oh, yes. Yeah, it’s, it’s so easy and low key and I just can’t recommend it enough. It’s a really easy way to like add a little bit of joy and magic in something that’s not too hard to keep up.

 

My, my number one tip, if you want to do it is to set into your calendar, like two weeks before your kids half birthdays, a reminder so that it doesn’t sneak up on you. Cause it has snuck up on me before where it’s like the day before and I’m like, Oh no. I don’t have a gift for that or I haven’t picked up a cake or anything like that.

 

So that would be my tip. Get a reminder a couple of weeks before the half birthdays so you don’t forget.

 

[00:03:16] Heidi: And this is something you can add into your holiday planning So, you know the month before your half birthday, you could make sure you have everything set up Assuming again that you have it written down that you need to make sure that it happens.

 

[00:03:28] Emily: Yes, exactly That’s a perfect thing to work on on a holiday

 

[00:03:33] Heidi: We would love to hear about your favorite traditions Or if you celebrate half birthdays fun things that you do come join us on Instagram at the holiday head start Every year since 2001, which I kind of can’t believe, Emily and I have been involved with holiday class parties in some capacity.

 

We started out having to do it as teachers, and now Emily is deep into the parent side of things. Oh, yes, I am. And over the years, we have picked up a few handy pointers for helping streamline your plans so that if you’re helping with a class party, you can focus on managing the kids and not pulling out your hair.

 

Yes.

 

[00:04:14] Emily: And I think ever since I took over the parent side of the class parties, I have even stronger feelings about class parties because trying to have fun with 25 hyper kids quickly turns things. chaotic if you’re not careful. We discussed class parties in depth on our teacher podcast, which is called Teacher Approved, and we will put a link in the show notes.

 

But check out episodes 33, 34, and 96 if you really want to get into the nitty gritty of class parties. Today,

 

[00:04:43] Heidi: we are going to be throwing a lot at you, but we have tried to limit our thoughts to just our 10 most important tips for having a successful

 

[00:04:52] Emily: class party. Yeah, I mean, only 10 really is limiting ourselves.

 

And by a successful class party, we mean fun, but contained. Yes, we sound like the party police, but putting some boundaries around the excitement prevents your party from ending in tears for you or the children.

 

[00:05:12] Heidi: Right. And the teachers. Yes. Teachers have to handle all those little darlings after the party is over.

 

So if you can keep things from skyrocketing at 10 o’clock in the morning, your teachers will love you forever.

 

[00:05:27] Emily: All right, let’s get started. Buckle up because this is a crash course in classroom management. So let’s dive into the deep end with our first tip, and that is to communicate clearly. And this is hard because everyone has their own ideas of what they think is going to happen at a class party.

 

And it’s a challenge to get everyone on the same page.

 

[00:05:49] Heidi: If you are the person in charge of planning the party, reach out to the teacher several weeks in advance and see what they want to have happen.

 

[00:05:58] Emily: You might think you should wait for the teacher to contact you, but if you’re a month or so out from the party and haven’t heard anything, I’d reach out to the teacher and ask if they have any guidelines for what they want you to plan.

 

Yeah, sometimes it’s the teacher. You’re just so busy doing the day to day. It’s

 

[00:06:12] Heidi: not even registering that you’ve got this party coming up.

 

[00:06:15] Emily: For sure.

 

[00:06:17] Heidi: If you’re trying to manage all of the communication, one of the things you need to find out is if other parents are involved in the planning, maybe there was a signup sheet that was put out at the meet the teacher night or something the PTA rounded up.

 

So you’d make sure that you have all of that information to start with.

 

[00:06:33] Emily: And several teachers have told us they recommend using a site like signup genius to coordinate details. It makes it easy to see who is doing what and I on the parent side have experiences and it is a helpful way to get everything signed up without a bunch of.

 

Reply all emails back and forth trying to

 

[00:06:51] Heidi: figure it out. Now of course, if you are not the one in charge of the party, it makes it harder to head up the communication and that can kind of leave you in an awkward spot if the person in charge is not doing the best job at communicating, which Emily, I think you’ve had experience with.

 

[00:07:10] Emily: Well, if you’re on the periphery of the planning chain, sometimes all you can do is make your best guess about what’s expected from you and then do what you can to make that part as successful as it can be.

 

[00:07:21] Heidi: So all of that is to say, if you are the person in charge, don’t be afraid to take charge. People are just really looking for someone to be the decision maker and then do what you can to communicate clearly.

 

And if you are not in charge. All you can do is do what you can with what you have.

 

[00:07:40] Emily: Yep. And that brings us to our second tip. This is something we feel very strongly about, if at all possible, set up your class party with stations.

 

We should have like a chair and air

 

[00:07:53] Heidi: horn there or something because this is, this is a big deal. Yes. The idea of stations is that there are several activities around the room with different things going on and then the kids just rotate through those activities.

 

[00:08:05] Emily: And we cannot endorse this idea highly enough.

 

Stations eliminate so many of the hassles that come with planning for a large group experience. Stations keep kids engaged but keep them contained. They help keep everything flowing and they simplify the planning. The only downside is you do need a lot of helpers to run all the stations.

 

[00:08:25] Heidi: But I do have to say that you don’t have to have an adult at each station if that’s not going to work out.

 

When I taught school, I frequently was the lone adult running my class parties, especially the Valentine’s day parties. I’ve got a lot of people who would come for Halloween, but not so much for Valentine’s day. Anyway, it’s so crazy. I know. I just made sure that the activities I planned for each station were activities that students could do independently.

 

And I was teaching second graders, so if they can do it, any. where you can handle it. Things like matching games, simple crafts, a bin of seasonal picture books. Those are all festive activities that don’t need adult guidance, but they still feel exciting for the kids.

 

[00:09:05] Emily: One of the key benefits of doing activity stations is that they mean kids aren’t having to wait long to take a turn.

 

And that is our third tip for planning a successful class party. Minimize waiting time. This

 

[00:09:18] Heidi: is such an easy trap to fall into. Something looks really fun on paper, like minute to win at games or relay races. Like it seems really fun to adults and they are fun for the 60 seconds you get to

 

[00:09:31] Emily: play

 

[00:09:33] Heidi: Right and some of the kids are going to be invested in what everyone else is doing I know like, you know as an adult you’re playing minute to win a game You’re seeing what everyone else is doing.

 

That’s part of the fun but a lot of kids Don’t have that investment and they check out really quickly if they are not actively participating in what’s happening right their kids It’s just what they do

 

[00:09:52] Emily: if you’ve got a group of six kids and only two can participate at a time You’ve got four hyper kids waiting around for several minutes before they can play and that means you’re giving them an opportunity To cause problems, which they probably will yes

 

[00:10:06] Heidi: That’s not fun for you to manage And ultimately, it’s not even fun for the kids.

 

They don’t want to feel out of control, even if it is a party. So, do what you can to plan games and activities that allow for, okay, this is a teacher term, ongoing participation instead of eventual participation. At the very least, do what you can to avoid having kids waiting longer than maybe a minute

 

at a

 

time.

 

[00:10:34] Emily: Our fourth tip for a successful class party is related to minimizing wait time, and that is to have the little details managed in advance. If you have to count out 25 decorative erasers to every kid before you can play bingo, you’re going to end up with distracted kids. Things will go much quicker if you have baggies of erasers already counted out.

 

[00:10:54] Heidi: And this is especially important if you’re dealing with food, having little cups of sprinkles and frosting and plenty of plastic knives and paper towels makes managing something like a cookie decorating station so much simpler.

 

[00:11:09] Emily: If you are planning an activity like a craft, you will be so grateful if you take the time.

 

To partition all the supplies and cut out little pieces in advance. Then you can just hand one set to each kid and not have to manage materials on top of trying to manage hyper kids. And it’s also a good idea to

 

[00:11:26] Heidi: make an example of a finished craft to show the students. I once had a very sweet mom show up to a Halloween party with a craft that she had seen online, but she hadn’t actually tried out herself.

 

Oh, bless. Yeah, she was so excited and it was. Such a hassle for me, . I ended up having to get out like multiple glue guns to help her because things weren’t working like she was envisioning and all of the kids’ projects were falling apart and they couldn’t do a lot of the work themselves. It was a lot

 

So avoid

 

[00:11:57] Emily: that. If you can, if you take nothing else from this episode, take this advice from two teachers. It’s really hard to adapt on the fly when you’re dealing with kids. Make sure you have everything you need ready to go so you’re not left scrounging for a way to make things work. In a hectic moment, and I also think it’s good to try out a craft in advance so that you can see if it can be done in the time allotted.

 

I’ve noticed at a lot of parties I help out, the kids are leaving with unfinished crafts because the parent didn’t realize this could not be done in that time frame. So another reason to practice it out in advance.

 

[00:12:31] Heidi: And that brings us to our fifth tip. As you’re planning your station activity, make sure you know how much time you need to fill.

 

Ideally, we would say, shoot for about 10

 

[00:12:43] Emily: minutes. If you weren’t in charge of planning this class party, you may not get much say in how long you spend at each station. But if you get any transfer input, voice that you would like it to be 10 minute stations.

 

[00:12:57] Heidi: Now, scientifically, I think 11 minutes is the perfect length of time.

 

And I arrived at this total by timing my students during class parties to figure out the best length of time. So I found that kids needed at least 8 minutes at a station to really get into what was happening. And then they did a great job staying engaged until about 11 minutes.

 

After that, they would slowly get more loud and more off task minute by minute. And by 15 minutes, they were pretty checked out. So if you get a say shoot for 10 to 12 minutes, if not, and you’re assigned a station for 15 or maybe more minutes, you might have more like planning to seven minute activities than trying to stretch something like.

 

Pin the nose on the witch for 15 minutes.

 

[00:13:45] Emily: Tip number six is easy, but you’ll need the teacher’s help. And that is to have name tags for the kids. It’s so much easier to work with kids if you know their names instead of having to call them, Hey you, which is exactly what I did at the Christmas and Halloween parties I helped with this year because they did not have name tags on and I don’t know these kids that well.

 

So I’d be like, Hey, um, the kid next to you, what’s that kid’s name? Or, um, you down there, it’s your turn. It could not be more confusing to try and run a station with kids and not know what their names are.

 

[00:14:17] Heidi: Now, this might be something that you feel weird asking the teacher, especially if you aren’t the one in charge of the party.

 

So, if you have to, you could bring some adhesive labels, and then just, as the kids come to your station, they could write their name on the label. You know, it takes about 30 seconds, but it really does make things run much more smoothly.

 

[00:14:34] Emily: Yes, I should have done that. I’m going to write that down for the next time I help at a class party.

 

I’m like, just bring your own labels. They never have them provided, so I should just bring them. Our seventh tip is another teacher secret, and that is to have an attention signal. An attention signal is a cue to get kids to pay attention to what you’re saying. If you’re heading up the class party and will be the person directing things, you can find out what the teacher’s attention signal is and use it to get kids attention before you give directions.

 

[00:15:02] Heidi: If you aren’t used to being in the classroom, it might feel a little weird to stand up in front of a group of people and say, one, two, three eyes on me, but I promise you the kids are used to it. It’s just second nature to them. So you have to be bold, give the attention signal. And then this is the hard part.

 

Wait until the kids are actually paying attention before you start giving directions,

 

[00:15:24] Emily: which is so hard to do. It is even hard for teachers to master this because your instinct is to just start trying to talk anyway, but everything will run more smoothly if everyone hears the directions instead of 20 percent of the group hearing the directions and then the rest asking what to do.

 

[00:15:40] Heidi: Oh yeah, you’ll be asked by every other kid that wasn’t listening individually. what they should be doing. So fun. Now, again, if you weren’t the person in charge of the party, it’s still helpful to take 10 seconds at the start of each rotation to teach a little attention signal to your group.

 

And this is where you can have some fun. And you maybe don’t need the teacher’s set attention signal when you’re dealing with a small group, you can have some fun with this. There are lots and lots of seasonal prompts online. So you could just look around for like seasonal attention signals and you’ll get some fun ideas.

 

The idea is that you say something and the kids stop what they’re doing. Say the response and then wait quietly

 

[00:16:19] Emily: for your instructions. So for example, if you’re doing a valentine party, you could say something like candy hearts and then teach the kids to respond, we’re so smart. And then they’re supposed to stop and actually listen.

 

[00:16:31] Heidi: The tricky part there. My favorite attention signal these days is just waterfall. And then the kids go, shh.

 

[00:16:40] Emily: Oh, that just calmed

 

[00:16:41] Heidi: me. Just hearing that shush. Right? It is so calming. It’s easy to remember. It gets the kids quiet. Like. It’s just wins all around with that one.

 

[00:16:50] Emily: Now if you’re doing an activity like Play Doh Pictionary, an attention signal for a small group might not be vital to your success.

 

But if you’re doing something active, particularly if the kids will be spread out around the space, an attention signal, even a clap or a chime can be very handy. All right, let’s move on to

 

[00:17:08] Heidi: our eighth tip. And this is really just a reminder, a class party does not have to be big to be fun. Around every holiday, I hear parents talking about bringing fruit and veggie plates and trays of cookies and bags of chips to class parties.

 

But I promise you, having been on the teacher’s side of that, most of that food goes untouched. It’s a lot of time and a lot of money. When really the kids can be happy with just a paper cut full of popcorn.

 

[00:17:38] Emily: True story. And this also goes for party activities. Anything different feels like a celebration.

 

You don’t need balloons and photo props and tie dyeing t shirts in order to make it memorable. Bingo! Building with gumdrops and toothpicks and playing a roll of candy game are all simple surefire winners.

 

[00:17:56] Heidi: And also when you’re thinking of party activities, don’t be afraid of open ended activities. A big bin of loose Legos or free time to play with Play Doh is always fun for kids.

 

They don’t get enough of that. One of my class’s all time favorite party activities was building with a pack of 100 solo cups. So during that station time, they could just build whatever they wanted. I gave them the cups. They just went at it. Um, It was the hit of our 100th day party. Everyone loved that one so much.

 

[00:18:26] Emily: And I believe I used your 100 solo cups that you had left over, for the class party I did a couple years ago . I had an activity for them to do with them. I think we were trying to see which team could build a structure with all of their cups the fastest.

 

But then After we did that a couple of times, I just let them do whatever they wanted with the cups to build. I mean, I didn’t let them go crazy or anything, but the open endedness of that, that group was the most engaged and we easily filled the time. There wasn’t any like, oh, we’re done, but it’s not time to rotate or we didn’t finish.

 

It could just perfectly fill the time. So I highly recommend those open ended activities.

 

[00:19:04] Heidi: Okay, and while we are talking about keeping things little, our ninth tip is to plan a little activity as a fast finisher. If you are at a station with kids for 12 minutes, but your activity only winds up lasting six minutes, you’re going to want to

 

back

 

up plan.

 

[00:19:20] Emily: You can always do the activity a second time if the activity lends itself to repetition, but sometimes by that point, the kids are bored. So a quick, fast finisher can be a lifesaver.

 

[00:19:30] Heidi: And again, really, this does not have to be big print a festive coloring page and bring some markers or, you know, a word search for the older kids.

 

[00:19:39] Emily: I always like to have a seasonal picture book or two to read. Even big kids enjoy being read to, even if they don’t want to admit that, especially if the story is funny.

 

[00:19:49] Heidi: If you are in charge of a food based station, besides a fast finisher activity, you might want a baggie or a container for kids to put their uneaten food in.

 

This is such a problem. Mm hmm. So let’s say you’re doing cookie decorating for a station, which is a great station, but some kids will completely decorate and eat their cookie in 10 minutes. But a lot of kids will not have even started eating cause they’re individually putting sprinkles on, you know? Yep.

 

So having a paper plate or a Ziploc bag for them so that they can put their unfinished food on their desks. will just help out

 

[00:20:23] Emily: so much. Yes. And while we’re talking about cookies, I just want to put in a tip here to watch out for those cookie decorating kits at stores that have gel food coloring. It is a nightmare.

 

It stains everything. It’s really hard to decorate with the kids get frustrated and it makes just the biggest most disgusting mess. And I find that those are the cookies I see that the kids decorate, but don’t eat because it does not look appetizing. So I would just say stay far away from the decorating kits.

 

If you can, if you want to do cookie decorating. Yes.

 

[00:21:00] Heidi: Oh, and another important cookie tip is have, if you’re having tubs of frosting, give each kid like their own frosting and their own knife because they will lick it. You think you’re watching them, but they’re so quick.

 

[00:21:14] Emily: Yes. Those little stinkers.

 

[00:21:16] Heidi: Those tongues are

 

[00:21:17] Emily: so fast.

 

Well. Now it’s time for our 10th tip, or maybe our 12th tip, because we just gave you those two bonus cookie tips. You’ve made it to the end of your 10 minute activity. Now you need to save the last minute of the rotation to clean up and reset the station.

 

[00:21:34] Heidi: Now if you’re the one in charge of the whole party, presumably you’re running the timer for everyone.

 

So set your timer to go off a minute before you want to rotate. So for example, if you’re doing 12 minute rotations. Set a time for 11 minutes, and then when that timer beeps set another timer for one minute. During that one minute, instruct the kids to straighten up their station, you know, reset everything.

 

They can return any of their papers or their crafts or their uneaten cookies to their desks. With my students, once things were tidy, I told them to stand up in their station and look at me, and that was the signal to me that they were ready to rotate. And then once that one minute timer beeped, Everyone is just all ready to move on to the next station.

 

[00:22:15] Emily: If you’re only in charge of your station and not the whole party, try to save that last minute for cleaning up before it’s time to rotate. It’s much easier to have the kids help you reset for the next group than it is trying to hurry and set things up as the kids are arriving and they’re getting in the middle of what you’re trying to do.

 

Yeah, that’s especially tricky if you’ve

 

[00:22:34] Heidi: got a game with a lot of pieces or things that need to be in place. It’s just hard to have a whole group of kids arriving because they’re excited, they want to see and they’re getting in the middle and you’re just. Trying to get it all set up. Come on, guys.

 

Alright, we threw a lot at you, but being able to smoothly manage a large group of excited kids does take a lot of planning, but I promise that you have got this. Remember our 10 tips, 10 plus tips? So one, communicate clearly. Two, plan stations that the kids can rotate through. Three, minimize that waiting around time.

 

Four, have the little details managed in advance. Five, shoot for 8 to 11 minute stations. Six, have name tags for the kids. Seven, use an attention signal. Eight, Remember, it doesn’t have to be big to be fun, nine, plan a fast finisher activity, and ten, leave the last minute of each rotation for

 

[00:23:32] Emily: station cleanup.

 

And if you want even more of our best tips, because believe it or not, there’s a lot more we could say about class parties, check the show notes for a link to our teacher approved podcast episodes.

 

[00:23:44] Heidi: And we would love to hear your best tips for handling class parties. You can connect with us on Instagram at the Holiday Head Start.

 

[00:23:51] Emily: Now it’s time for a Get Ahead Start tip. Each week we leave you with a small, actionable tip to help you get a head start on your holiday planning. This week’s Get Ahead Start tip is buy your Valentines now. So tell us more about this, Heidi. Well, I don’t know if

 

[00:24:05] Heidi: this is a tip as much as it’s just a reminder, but get a jump on class Valentines now so that you are not scrambling at the last minute.

 

We will link to some of our favorite places in the show notes, but we love the Valentines from Oriental Trading, Target. Mindware paper source. And of course, Amazon has a ton. There’s just nothing worse than getting to February 12th and not finding any Valentine’s in stock that your kid is actually excited to hand out.

 

Yep. Okay. Emily, let’s share what we are working on this week as a way to keep ourselves accountable and to give you some ideas of what you can do in advance for your own celebrations. We are sharing what we’re working on this week. Emily, what’s on your to do list?

 

[00:24:45] Emily: Well, I’m prepping for Valentine’s Day

 

and I’m excited to say that I already have my kids Valentines that they will need for their classroom exchanges. Bought them weeks ago, like the first week of January. As soon as they were available to get from Target, I got them. I’m so proud of myself. That is awesome. I’m going to get the Valentines decor out this week too and start prepping for Secret Cupid, which I think we’re going to talk about in next week’s episode.

 

What are you working on? Heidi?

 

[00:25:12] Heidi: Well, I have my first holiday this Sunday, which if you have missed the discussion is a one day a month is set aside to work on some holiday prep tasks, long term Christmas planning. And then also like what’s coming up. In the next month, so I guess this would be February.

 

I’m excited because I, got smart this time, and I made a list of what I want to do on each holiday. Because in the past, what I would do is it would be a holiday, and I’d be like, oh yeah, I need to do something. And then I would spend the whole time trying to come up with

 

what to do.

 

It was a big waste of time.

 

[00:25:50] Emily: Yeah, it would probably be smart to have like A list somewhere on your phone or something that you can have a list of like what you’re going to work on at the next holiday so that you’re prepared when it comes.

 

[00:26:02] Heidi: Yes, and that’s actually exactly what I did. I started to know all my in the notes app where it’s like, okay, each month I want to do these things and then broke it down. Slowly into, like, so each month I want to go over, one of our traditions and evaluate and make sure that it’s working and make a grocery list for each thing so I have all those broken down and so hopefully that will keep me on track.

 

[00:26:23] Emily: Yeah, and I think I’m going to do that and I think I’m gonna Have my note, have a spot for each month of the year so that I can pre fill now. Like, I know that , in my June holiday, I need to be thinking about Neil’s birthday, which is in July. Yes. You know, things like that. So it’s already on there.

 

I’m going to do that. My I’m doing my holiday this weekend too. So maybe setting up my list will be part of my holiday

 

[00:26:49] Heidi: and I also need to finish my after Christmas reflection cause I haven’t got that done yet, but it’s nice to have that set time now to just make myself do it. To wrap up the show, we are showing our nice list.

 

Emily, what made it on your nice

 

[00:27:00] Emily: list this week? I am putting leaving your Christmas tree up as long as you want to on the nice list. I generally feel guilty if I don’t get my tree put away like right after New Year’s. I don’t know why it’s, it makes no sense. But then this year I was like, that is a made up rule.

 

I don’t have to do that. So we did take the ornaments off a couple of weeks ago because when I look at my tree, knowing it’s going to be put away soon, sometimes seeing the ornaments reminds me that I have like a big to do list item still to do. So we did take all the ornaments off. But I have left it up with just the lights and I just love it.

 

But I am ready to take it down now, so it’s nice that I can take it down when I’m ready to. It, like, that’s just, like, liberating. The rules are made up, you guys. Yes. Well, I love that. What’s on your nice list, Heidi?

 

[00:27:49] Heidi: Well, this is really connected to what you just said, but I’m going to put myself on the nice list.

 

I don’t know if that’s allowed.

 

[00:27:56] Emily: The rules are made up, Heidi. The rules are made up. So

 

[00:27:59] Heidi: especially

 

[00:28:00] Emily: the rules that we literally made up. Um, and the points don’t matter. I hate to break it to you.

 

[00:28:06] Heidi: Well, as we’re recording this, it is mid January and I’m like, Emily, I have barely touched the Christmas cleanup.

 

Not only is the tree still up, it’s still almost fully decorated. I have started a little bit, but not much. And I have really, really been a hard on myself about not having this finished by now, like big existential spiral crisis. But this week I had a big aha that this stuff isn’t out because I’m incapable of falling through or lazy or whatever other mean thing I’m telling myself, the stuff is out.

 

Cause. Dang, I am busy trying to catch up on work right now. Yep. So not only is that taking a huge chunk of time, it’s taking all of my energy. So when I am starting to spiral, I’m trying to ask myself, like, when, when should you have had the time to do all those tasks then? And that’s been a pretty good wake up call because I can’t invent more hours in the day and energy is also pretty limited.

 

So. Yep. Now, if you are someone who doesn’t have an inner critic, this maybe sounds like. A minor issue, but it’s been a very big step for me to recognize the spiraling and the beating myself up that I’m doing and trying to stop those critical thoughts. So I feel like instead of being critical, I’m going to be nice to myself and put myself on the nice list.

 

[00:29:23] Emily: Yes. And well earned to be on there. Good job.

 

[00:29:28] Heidi: That’s it for today’s episode. Save these 10 tips for the next class party that you are helping with, and don’t forget to grab those valentines now. Thank

 

[00:29:37] Emily: you so much for joining

 

[00:29:38] Heidi: us, and we hope to see you here next week.