Reflections of a Working Parent: Holiday Debrief and Planning for the New Year
Oversubscribed Newsletter
Season Q1 2026
New Year, Fresh Start
by Amanda McGovern, PhD & Megan Hughes, PhD
Reflections of a Working Parent: Holiday Debrief and Planning for the Year
We first wanted to provide our readers with a glimpse into what we learned from celebration season. It is a chaotic season, in which working parents feel very overwhelmed by the many demands and expectations. We personally did some reflection on what felt successful this holiday season and what we struggled with.
Part 1: How did it go this holiday season as a working parent?
Planning was a significant priority for us coming into the celebration season. Being working parents for the past 11 years, we both were more aware about the many demands and expectations of this season. Megan completed an exercise called the Holiday Blitz through Organize 365 that helped her and her family identify what holiday activities they wanted to engage in. Being selective about their holiday activities freed up time to pursue other activities, tasks, and rest. Amanda shared how she adapted her approach to holiday activities like decorating the tree and making cookies by involving her kids a lot more. These activities required more time but felt more meaningful and signified a shared family experience. Lastly, we also both planned to take time off from work to be able to focus on our families. With this planning, we felt successful at setting boundaries and expectations with our work before that intended time off.
We both valued connection this holiday season, from being with our families to spending time with friends. Megan hosted a small holiday party with friends and local family this year that felt festive, fun, and relatively simple and stress-free. She catered it as well as hired a babysitter, so the adults could have some bonding time. Amanda also hosted her husband’s work party and asked everyone to bring something to share. This created an eclectic spread but also generated ease as well as connection. By leaning into their value of connection, pre-planning, and choosing simplicity, we both had very meaningful experiences.
Lastly, the importance of being flexible and adaptable really stood out to both of us. Even though Megan and her husband have traditionally seen a holiday show in NYC each year, her kids expressed their disinterest in those options. They attempted a compromise with a local performance, during which one kiddo had a 105 degree fever and had to stay home with a parent, and the other kiddo demanded to leave at intermission. Megan learned that shoe-horning in forced fun was not a win this year, and will probably pick the Nutcracker for date night next year. For Amanda, illness caused her to have to cancel and reschedule plans. Even though one of her kiddos was sick, it gave their family the opportunity to have a quieter day at home together, watching some holiday movies.
We also both noted some challenges. We had specific intentions to work on this newsletter during our time off. With the demands of home life and the lack of structure during this time, this felt unachievable. In processing this together, we realized that we have to be more intentional about carving out time for doing work at home. In the future, this might involve coordinating with our partners for them to be on “kid duty” and/or leaving the home and going to a coffee shop or a library for a couple of hours.
Another challenge that we faced was tuning into our own needs. With the juggle of working parenthood, during planned time off from work, we have a tendency to feel like all of our time and attention should be focused on our families. Even 11 years into this parenting journey, the working mom guilt can spring up at any moment and can lead to ignoring our own needs and eventual burnout. With this pattern identified, we hope to pay more attention to our own needs and let them guide our plans for the coming year.
Here are a few questions to help you reflect on your celebration season:
Specific to your role as a working parent, were you able to live according to your values during the celebration season? Were there any specific ways that these roles or values came into conflict with each other or felt unworkable? If so, how did you manage? Did you learn anything in particular about yourself?
Anything that you would do differently next year during the celebration season related to work and/or parenthood? Where can you document that so you’ll remember to make the change at the end of 2026?
Part 2: What do you need in the new year as a working parent?
With the new year here, we thought it was also an ideal time to reflect on the past year as well as set intentions for the year ahead. You can engage in this reflection by asking yourself the prompting questions below, journaling, and/or using an annual review guide (see resources below).
Here are some questions specifically related to work and parenthood that we considered in reflecting about the past year and that you can use to plan ahead for this coming year:
Briefly review last year and identify any significant events/experiences that occurred related to your role as a working parent. How did these events/experiences impact you? Do you need to change anything about your work or parenting roles to manage these events? (e.g., a child has a new health diagnosis that might require you to be available to take them to appointments during your working hours; you started a new job with different expectations).
What were your accomplishments last year related to work or parenting that have impacted your responsibilities for this coming year? (e.g., work promotion that means you need to be available for more after-hours meetings, your child got on a sports team that is going to require more carpool coordination).
What values specific to work or parenting did you follow last year? Are there values that you connect to in your work life that interfere with your values in your family life (e.g., your achievement orientation pushes you to put in more hours at work that interferes with your value of being present with your kids)? How might you address that this year?
Think about your allocation of work time, home time, work-from-home time, and your family-related issues that occur during work hours. Are there any changes you want to make in terms of time allocation? Do you need more childcare to be able to spend more time working? Do you need more time with the kids, with a partner, or with friends? Do you need more time in solitude.
We hope you can take a few quiet moments to answer these questions. If you want to do a more thorough exploration of the past year and plan for the new year, check out some of the resources below.
Resources:
For Holiday 2026 planning. The free Holiday Blitz course happens annually in October through Organize 365: https://organize365.com/
Annual Review Guides:
Year Compass is a free booklet to help you reflect on the year and plan for the next one. https://yearcompass.com/
Sara Hart-Unger offers great ideas for creating your own annual planning retreat on her website, podcast, and in her new book, Best Laid Plans.