Measure twice cut once.

I'm building a shed at the moment. Over a year in the making. Progress is slow because life is busy and it's never going to make it high on the priority list.

That phrase is something I've learned, and relearned. Its all about preparation and it applies to family life too.

Yesterday over dinner my son asked about the weekend. This ‘what’s coming up in the future’ conversation is a near daily one in our house - what's going happen today, tomorrow, this week and weekend, on Christmas eve and day (no waking us up before 7:15).

We've found it helps keep the kids calmer and therefore me more patient with them. It makes for fewer unexpected surprises that tend to trigger tantrums.

Of course it doesn't work with toddlers, who wanted their toast cut into to triangles two seconds ago and now you've done it, their world has crumbled. Their brains just haven't developed enough yet to make sense of reality. But getting into the habit certainly helps. We started with a wall chart - days of the week and pictures and single words saying what was happening each day - Monday Nursery, Tuesday Mum, Wednesday Mum, Thursday Dad etc.

But it does work with older kids, and can work remarkably well to keep everyone stay that bit calmer.