Setting Healthy Boundaries With Family This Holiday Season

Key points

Holiday stress signals your needs for rest are bumping up against others' needs for connection and belonging.

Boundaries express your needs when you can't find solutions that work for everyone.

Guilt appears when you're doing something different than expected, not because you're doing something wrong.

The songs, the sparkly lights, families coming together... everything says the holidays should be the most wonderful time of the year.

But if you're dreading this period, plenty of other people are wondering the same thing: "Is it normal to dread the holidays?"

You're rushing from one gathering to the next while trying to spend quality time with family. One minute, everyone's getting along fine, and the next, your preschooler refuses to thank Grandma for a gift, and there are