Physicians are busy as it is—adding in the hectic holiday season can make it even more difficult to ensure family time. Here are a few tips to help you merge clinical and call schedules with the extra seasonal tasks that need attention.
A recent article in the AMA Alliance magazine Physician Family suggests these ways to prepare your family for the holiday season:
- Set aside protected family time. During the holidays, it is important to build into your schedule specific time for family. Share your commitment with your family, and let them know this time together is important to you.
- Participate in rituals and holiday traditions. This season provides great opportunities for emotional connections, engagement and shared expressions of what it means to be a part of a family. Whatever your family’s traditions may be, take part in them.
- Include everyone in planning. Don’t shoulder the stress of holiday planning alone, and don’t let it all fall on your partner, either. Instead, let every member of the family take on some responsibility. Sharing in the planning can help make the load light and build stronger family connections.
- Manage disappointment when necessary. Sometimes—no matter what you do—medicine will take precedence over holiday activities. Help your kids deal with feeling let down by talking through their feelings and letting them know you hear their disappointment.
See more information on preparing for the holidays in the fall 2014 issue of Physician Family, published online four times a year especially for the loved ones of physicians, residents and medical students.
