Thanksgiving Rest: It's for Everyone

Thanksgiving is often described as a time to rest and relax, but in reality, it can be one of the most demanding weekends of the year.  Depending on your role in the annual events, you may be traveling, hosting, cooking, cleaning, entertaining guests, having financial pressure, or just working to make everything special for everyone else.  So how do we capitalize on rest when life doesn't actually slow down for the holidays?

One of the first ideas to lighten the load and free up time for rest is to rotate kitchen and other responsibilities so everyone gets a break.  Traditional roles that burden just one or two people to take on the entire list of duties for meal preparation and arrangements is out of date.  Make watching football, playing games, taking a nap, cleaning up after the meal, going for a walk, all equally available leisure for everyone.

Also, it is becoming much more common now to assign everyone a dish, dessert, drinks or supplies to bring to lighten the load for the host or hostess, which provides everyone more freedom to participate in the holiday.  In addition, rotating who the host or hostess is from year to year is a great idea that not only prevents one household from taking on the responsibilities every year, but also allows others in the family group to have a shot at hosting they may feel they never get to do because it is dominated by just one household every year.

Thanksgiving no longer has to be a domestic chore for just one or two people, which has traditionally fallen on women.  In today's modern world a more balanced holiday can provide space for everyone (women, men and children), to participate in the preparation of the feast, as well as in the clean-up and relaxation portions of the day.

Thanksgiving is not just a day of thanks; it is also a day of rest and that rest should be accessible to everyone.  Here are some ideas for making your Thanksgiving enjoyable so everyone finds the day restful: 

Make sure that everyone attending contributes to the meal, participates in the clean-up, has a hand in the planning, helps entertain guests, gets to enjoy the meal without being the only one stuck serving, gets time to socialize, relax, and do something they enjoy.  Most of all, don't assign responsibilities to anyone based on their gender, age, or any traditional family role.  Make it a healthy and enjoyable holiday for everyone.

"Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation."     ~Audre Lorde

Thanks to Faith Goble for the great photo, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en