The Christian Mom’s Mindset for a Peaceful, Joyful Holiday with Her Adult Kids
/Has holiday planning with your adult children increased your stress levels and you’re barely into November?
Maybe you can relate to Julia’s story:
Julia settled into her comfy chair with her morning coffee. Worry bubbled forth as she imagined what the holidays will look like this year. Her oldest, John, won’t be home as he’s heading to his wife's parent’s home. “I’ll never get used to sharing my child with another family,” she thinks, “I just don’t like it.”
Her middle daughter, Elizabeth, won’t commit to plans. “Why can’t she just communicate with me? It’s so frustrating,” she sighs. “She seems annoyed with us all. We’re hardly even a family anymore. Why does it all have to be so stressful,” she wonders.
Connor, her youngest, will be home from college. “He never seems to want to be with us,” she thinks. “He’s always running around with his friends. I feel lonely and forgotten.”
“Lord, I need you. I’m overwhelmed and I don’t want our holidays to be stressful. I give everyone and everything to you. Please help me,” she whispered, as peace washed over her soul.
Mom Stress
Preparing for the holidays has never been easy for moms. Most of us have carried the mental weight of holiday planning for decades and the stress continues as our children reach adulthood.
We all face many of these common stressors:
Sharing our married children with their in-laws.
Step-families and the juggling that requires.
Tension in our adult children’s relationship with each other.
Our children have abandoned the religious views of their upbringing.
No one in our families pitches in for meal prep and cleaning.
Our adult children are resistant to making family plans.
Talk about stress. No wonder we dread this time of year. It feels like too much, and we’ll just be disappointed again.
What if there was a way to shift our thinking? Could we adopt a healthier view, so we don’t end up crushed and disappointed? How could our holidays look if we entered them from a posture of surrender?
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