Parenting: Taking a Much Needed Break for Yourself

    The holiday hustle and bustle can feel overwhelming, but sometimes daily life can feel just as hectic, especially for parents. Can’t we just slow down? Fox’s Lisa Brady reports in this week’s ‘FOX on Family’:

    Raising kids is a busy life:

    (Nuttle) “We as parents, we’re overly productive, we want to cram everything in. We’re constantly working, thinking, we rarely stop to rest and we’re rarely satisfied.”

    So how do we slow down? Business owner, author and mother-of-three Angela Nuttle, says it’s a process:

    (Nuttle) “When we’re choosing to stay busy like that, we’re actually choosing to value one thing over another.”

    Nuttle was working as a defense contractor in Iraq when her dad called-on Father’s Day-to say he loved her and she said… she’d call him back another time. But they never spoke again. A few days later he was killed in a car accident:

    (Nuttle) “And that’s a hard way to learn a lesson, but it’s one that made me step back and rethink my values and what was important.”

    Nuttle also says a just shift in pace can feel like downtime; for her, a break from work to take her daughter for ice cream. A journal can help. Jot down what you do every, put a heart next to the most meaningful, and then set a goal… of more hearts.

    With FOX on Family, I’m Lisa Brady.

    Angela Nuttle is author of the new book ‘Compose Your Soul: How to Turn Your Daily Chaos into Calm Control’, and CEO of a consulting firm, The Corporate Talent Institute. She also says the first step to slowing down is to start catching yourself when you’re being overly productive, when it’s not benefiting you or your family, and to think about what experiences have driven you to feel like you have to keep going at that pace. She also reminds parents that kids are watching and may end up thinking they have to live life running at that same pace.