Tuesday, October 7, 2008

New Topic - Social Planner

This scene is from one of the funniest movies EVER! (IMHO)



(Aaahhhhh - really, if you haven't seen this movie - you have missed out!)

Seeing this segment leads me to ask everyone - who is the social planner in your family? Is it a shared responsibility? Is it in danger if left in somebody's hands? Is it something you enjoy? Do you keep your social planner full? Do you prefer to keep it to a minimum?

When I was first married, it seemed natural that I would keep track of that sort of stuff. However, after several miscommunications (or lack thereof) we quickly realized, as did all our family members, that I was not the one for this job. I was very good at double booking us or just forgetting things all together. Not a great way to make a good impression on your new in laws!

So, to save face for me, Bert pretty much took charge and now it is a joint venture. Every Monday night we sit down as a family and go over everything we have for the week. He can keep track of all sorts of things in his head - I live by the calendar! If I don't see it, it pretty much doesn't exist in my world.

Sharing the responsibility and making sure we communicate these things on a regular basis has helped us tremendously. We don't doublebook anymore and we make it to everything we say we are going to make it to.

What about you? Especially as we are heading into the holidays, how have you learned to keep track of all the events in your busy lives? I don't know what we will do when our kids morph into teens and start having all sorts of other activities to attend - YIKES! I can barely keep track of things now. I will have to find a great calendar system for a busy family. What do you all do? Love to hear your ideas, and I will be posting great ideas I find this week - hoping to learn a lot!

4 Mommies Sharing:

Tia Langston said...

I have many calendars...in fact, two right next to each other in my kitchen. I am also a huge list person. I write and rewrite lists daily. I even have lists that I keep on the computer. I think I have a pretty good memory...but it sticks better if I keep things written down as well. But I love our social events, so even when I'm overwhelmed...I just keep booking them!

Amber said...

I, too, live by my calendar. And when I'm feeling really organized I color code our "events". I write down birthdays in red, meetings/appts in one color, parties/activities in another, etc. Or when I don't have a different colored pen on hand, I categorize events by making a little dot next to them with different color highlighters. At the first of each month I find myself staring at the emptiness with a sigh of relief, but in the back of my head I know it won't last long!(And that's fine with me because really, how boring would a blank calendar be?)

Fleur de Bee said...

Hi Jenny in UT! I am Molly in UT! LOL! Darling blog! I must admit I have about 2 calendars that seems to conflict with each other. While I am pretty organized I never quit seem to get them together as they should be....I add to one and forget to update the other. Keep trying eh!

Hey at least I am honest about it LOL!

Hope you enjoyed that snow this morning Brrr!

Diane said...

I am the social planner of my family for my daughter and for hubbie too. We have a calendar that we use. I have my own that I record things on that I need to know where we are at that day.
I am also starting up a business for social events so I need to be organized. I guess I had better clean out that filing cabinet to keep it all neat and organized from the start.
I organized a womans day event and it went awesome so we are planning one for the spring too. I enjoyed all of the social planning that went on with that.