How I became a Christmas Hero
I’m the mother of 3, surprisingly decent kids, and right now, I am advising Stretch, a start-up built to bring productivity to families. The iOS app hits the App Store this fall. What follows is a mini-tale and it is true, about how this app saved my bacon over the holidays and transformed me into a holiday hero.
The holidays are over and the new year is here. So, how did it go for everyone? Was the holiday train a ride of pure joy? Or did it derail a few times? If it was someplace in the middle, don’t beat yourself up.
Holidays are hard to get right. Not just the gift buying part, the travel, or the party we want to have. There are just too many things that make up a great experience. Stress at work happens and sometimes can be useful, but in a family, one harried parent with a sheaf of lists does not a good experience make.
For one thing, lists do not solve it. The problem with lists is that they are 2D, and life is 3D. Some of the items on the list become dead ends and others take on new life, branch into new tasks, experiences to try, places we need to go, or people to enlist to make it happen.
This year the big difference was that I used an mobile cloud service called Stretch. Mainly it is a professional caliber team app that is designed for families.
A little background. My mom-brain is an imperfect storm; two parts MBA, one part ADD. I like to stay on top of things. And I also like to have some joy and serendipity in my life. Also I like that for my kids too. These are at odds, organizationally that is.
Also, faced with a mountain of work, I like to delegate. That’s the manager in me. Needless to say, the kids are unwilling employees.
Now throw in Christmas and, this year in a remote family retreat, which means shipping all the joy in advance and then boxing it up beautifully, and suddenly “Nightmare before Christmas” loses it’s irony.
A holiday or any family project is a constellation of information, deadlines, destinations, stories, and delightful ideas floating around in our minds. Holidays are task driven but the magic fairy dust is the inspiration beyond the to-do lists. Something about the very nature of the holiday crush can drive these sweet thoughts scurrying. Our best ideas are hard to recapture especially as we walk across a dark, windswept parking lot towards the unnatural glow of a mall.
I know, an app can’t run your life, or raise your kids. But Stretch did give my ideas for gifts, holiday destinations, and holiday household details a place to call home. For instance, being a master procrastinator, I still managed to capture bits of info about my childrens’ desires throughout the fall and simply write them in the app. (Kids can forget what they say, especially when they are riding with a friend.) Usually I have these things written down, in about 5 places.
We stayed on top of things so I was more at peace, could delegate when it made sense, and my husband was more informed. Stretch was a container for the contacts and new passwords we created to buy things in obscure places, the receipts and the tracking numbers. Also it held instructions shared with the grateful grandparents. Stretch held flight information too. Also budgets. I just threw everything I or anyone had to do or remember in there.
Result? I did not have piles of cards, receipts and lists on my desk or sticky notes dropping from a fraying notebook this year.
On delegation? I used Stretch to help give my kids a few holiday missions. First of all Stretch had things like where we put the christmas lights, recipes we like and shopping lists for those. Two of my kids are devout gamers (non-violent, we hope). For better or worse, my modern kids like their little devices. Stretch works like a game to them simply because it’s in an app.
So my gamer sons ran through the aisles of Whole Foods gleefully ticking things off the list in Stretch and placing the real, non virtual items in the cart. They were into it. They got it done — they were proud of themselves and happy.
Later that same week my daughter bloomed into a mini Martha Stewart, armed with things usually only I know, like where we store the tree lights and Christmas decorations. She did the decorations and enlisted some visiting family to help. She was proud of herself at being trusted with this centerpiece of the holiday.
The miracle for me was these were moments that big tasks got done, but helped this time by many hands, and as a result, joy happened.
Not to bleed all the mystery and wonder out of the season, but bottom-line, we spent less money, and earned our highest ratings ever on the gift-getting joy meter. “Best Christmas ever,” said my 11 year old, “Good job!” We also had a great party which the kids actually enjoyed too, and wrote about in their journals upon the return to school.
This time instead of being all stressed to get it done, throwing money at it towards the last moment, or sad we sort of blew it off, we were really right there with it having fun, like you are supposed to be.
Okay, there was one little hitch: the Uggs I bought for my teenager. “Blue,” she said, eyebrows raised, “With shiny, satin bows at the back?” The disgust meter level was rising.
There are some things an app can’t fix.
I sent them back realizing with a little pang, that she has outgrown shiny satin bows. Though maybe some day she can read in Stretch of great blue Uggs with satin bows fiasco and find it a little bit funny.
Ps. Stretch is in Beta. You can get it from the App Store (iOS first; Android next). If you like this story and want to make it your own, download it now at this link.!
Sincerely yours,
Carolina K. Reid, aka Stretch Mama
Austin TX.
