A long week at the office is tough on everyone in a family. While dad or mom, or both parents are working late nights, the kids do not need any less from their parents than they do during vacations and holidays.
A great way to relax is to help one's partner relax, just as a surefire means of creating tension in the home is to loaf around as though only one person had a hard week.
Relaxing can be easy, between catering to a spouse's physical desires, vacuuming the living room and folding laundry, or setting up a sitter after making dinner reservations.
Making Love is a Great Stress Reliever
After a long, hard week, a person deserves a little R&R. This can be done by making sure the kids are in bed and staying there, the doors in the bedroom are locked, and there are fresh sheets on the bed.
A great way to start is with an extensive period of foreplay. Massages are great, but not for everyone. For those who do not like to have the lactic acid squeezed out of their muscles, they will surely appreciate being touched, kissed, and nuzzled.
Let there be a night that it's about him or her. While doing so, tell your spouse that you appreciate what he or she does and how good it feels. Expressing love and gratitude can never be done too often or in too many ways. This method allows for them to hear it in two of the five languages of love.
A Clean Home Feels Better
Clutter can be stressful. Not having underwear can be stressful as well.
After a week of doing his job, and doing it well, a man would like to find that things are in order. Similarly, women do not want to have to hunt down a pair of shoes and socks when they should be on their way to church or one of the kids' games.
Cleaning up around the home is not always easy when both partners are working, and in such a case it may be appreciated even more. Simple chores can go a long way, such as doing the dishes and cleaning the counters and stove after dinner while encouraging one's spouse to go on Netflix to see when the next movie is arriving, rather than badger him about the clothes that need to be in the dryer.
Setting up a Date Night Covers All Bases
Couples need quality time alone. Date nights are a great way to make it happen. Setting up a sitter is often simple enough since a family always needs a short list for such occasions.
Date nights can also take care of the other two stress-relieving suggestions. Since the sitter is getting paid, she may as well earn her wages in supervising the children doing a few chores around the house.
This can be done with incentives for the kids. For example, let the children know that they have ice cream and a movie waiting for them after dinner, but that they cannot have it until their bedroom(s) and bathroom is clean, and the living room is picked up.
When the sitter arrives, let him or her know the children's schedule of dinner, pajamas, snack, brushing teeth, and that the chores needed to be done will be done before ice cream or the movie.
When date night is over, dinner will have been wonderful, the house will be cleaner, and gratitude may be coming the other way before the night is out.
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