Mitigating the (Christmas) Meltdowns

Rachel Cole - 23 Nov 17

I love Christmas. As a Mum of two Christmas this year is going to be extra special because this year they both ‘get it!’ At 5 and 2 they are absolutely captivated by the magic of Father Christmas and I of course want to do everything I can to make lasting fun family traditions and truly happy memories (#christmasmumgoals).

However, this will involve a certain amount of expectation management. My daughter at 5 is still very prone to complete (and often public) meltdowns. If things don’t happen the way she expects them to happen, or the way she had imagined they would happen- boy do we all know about it! We go through each and every week managing her expectations in order to avoid confusion which leads to stress and upset. It takes time. It takes patience. We are in constant negotiations. About everything.

Surely it’s not just me? Here are the top twelve meltdown moments I’ll be mitigating this Christmas:
1. Advent calendars (chocolate before breakfast is ok- just one each!)
2. Putting the decorations up (no, you can’t have the tree in your bedroom, but you can have this pink festive pompom-clad Llama)
3. School Christmas dinner (if you take packed lunch you can’t have the school dinner pudding)
4. Sending Christmas cards (‘just write your effing name!’)
5. Christmas jumper day / school Christmas party (you can just put the jumper in your book bag and put it on when the teachers tell you!)
6. End of term carol concern (NB. NOT a nativity (need to manage MY expectations here!)
7. What to buy Daddy for christmas (novelty ice cube tray anyone?)
8. Family Christmas party and games (noise levels, lots of people in our house, trying to manage board games the 5 year old is determined to play that the 2 year old is determine to destroy)
9. Christmas Eve walk to nice cafe for brunch -fantasy v’s reality (buggy board to the rescue- 2 year old on the buggy board, 5 year old in the buggy!)
10. Christmas Eve boxes and preparing for Santa (crumbs for the reindeer, yes actual crumbs. for. the. bloody. reindeer)
11. Christmas morning order of events – stockings, breakfast, presents- before 5am. (That’s why I ask for Chocolate covered coffee beans in my stocking!)
12. Chocolate consumption (constant v’s managed as a reward for compliance in basically anything)

I know I won’t be the only Mum facing these daily battles over the festive season. Forewarned is forearmed in this case and if I can reassure my daughter by being constant (when routines change to accommodate exciting festive events) we will emerge from the mist of (eco-friendly) glitter with happy memories and hopefully without too many meltdowns.

Rachel Cole

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