Family life can feel chaotic when one person works nights. Halley Nagy, LMFT, offers a calm approach to handling household responsibilities, communication, and routines so the whole family runs more smoothly—even with disrupted hours.
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family harmony strategies often involve
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prioritizing time together um whether
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you have to schedule it whether it's a
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part of a routine if you can at least
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carve out 15 minutes a day right that is
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all children at least need to feel
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connected to you um for your partner
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that might look differently for your mom
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or dad or whoever that might look
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differently so prioritizing that time
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and managing expectations of what that
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looks like for
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everyone and when you do have that time
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be present don't um be on your phone the
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whole time don't be only talking about
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work right these can happen and these
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can be part of it but if we're
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scheduling time to connect and catch up
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and be there for each other allow it to
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be that and along with these things
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communicating effectively right
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communicating about your schedule your
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wants your needs how you feel connected
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what will or will not work for you and
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vice versa the other person has that
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responsibility too if you're able to do
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these three things together then you
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have a better chance at having family
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harmony
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so some things you may need to keep in
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mind um you may never find the time
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right a lot of people have really busy
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schedules busy lives and I know things
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can get said where I just need to find
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the time but I have no time um you have
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to make the time if something is a big
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enough priority to you then you need to
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make the time whether that means I
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change something in my schedule whether
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that means I eliminate something else or
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take something else off my plate whether
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that means I have to adjust it somehow
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um you might not find the time but you
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do need to make it if it's important
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enough to
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you do not engage in hard or heavy
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conversations when you are exhausted
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frustrated hungry tired right generally
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disregulated um if you do have a set day
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and time where you scheduled things with
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your partner but you're really not in
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the space to do it ask if you can
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reschedule it is not beneficial to
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anyone for one person to show up and not
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be in the space to have that
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conversation it might be frustrating to
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wait it might have been a plan you made
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um but it will go so much better if you
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if both parties really are in a place to
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be able to have that
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conversation and then lastly acknowledge
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and validate the emotions around your
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schedule um if your child or mother or
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partner or whoever is having a really
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hard time with your night shift and how
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things are going or how you can't be at
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something um it is easy to want to get
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defensive and argue your position and
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whatever whatever whatever um but it can
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be really important to acknowledge and
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validate how they're feeling i totally
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get that you wanted me to be able to
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attend that i'm so sorry that I can't
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here's how we can do something about it
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moving forward um sometimes people just
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want to be heard and be in that
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frustration and maybe you know something
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about it too maybe there are times when
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your schedule just like anybody's
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schedule might not allow for something
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and that can be frustrating so again
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remembering to have that empathy and
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understand where they're coming from