10 tips for slowing down family life

Couple time instead of to-do lists and calming family rituals: this is how parents bring lightness into their everyday lives:

• Make an «emergency to-do list». Take a close look at everything you have planned for the following day and think about what is really necessary. Put the rest on the list - and then leave it alone.
• Rituals help you to slow down. Plan regular family meals together and involve your children in the cooking and washing up. This means less work - and time for conversation.
• Make time for each other as parents too : give up watching TV one evening a week and go out for an after-work beer instead. If you have small children, drink it at home - but at the kitchen table, not in front of the telly.
• A relaxed walk. Walk all or part of your way to work. This can help clear your head, especially after a busy day.
• Spend the weekend at home, playing cards on the balcony or having a picnic in the nearby park. It doesn't always have to be a trip.

Digital time-out and chilling teenagers: 5 more tips for slowing down

• Give yourself a digital time-out, for example a day of the week when mobile phones and computers are switched off.
• Stop seeing multitasking as something desirable and dedicate yourself to just one thing or person, but with dedication.

• Make sure you don't overload your children's diaries and give them enough free time that they can organise themselves. Don't see it as your job to organise your children's time off school.
• Instead, send the children outside - and don't be discouraged if they are standing outside the door again after a short time because there is no one to play with. Children need to learn to put up with boredom.
• Understand when young people want to chill out and allow them to do nothing. Don't tell your children which activities are appropriate and which are not.