Routines help families with stress

Maintaining family routines and traditions is an important way of bonding as a family and can have the added benefit of helping to manage stress. Eating meals together, doing fun things together—such as sports or music events, exercising together, and creating or maintaining holiday or special traditions—can stabilize and strengthen family relationships. When a parent, spouse, or child is deployed, continuing consistent family routines and maintaining family traditions are important for both the deployed Warfighter and his or her family. Having a familiar routine can help everyone know what to expect, which also helps ease the stress associated with having one member of the family no longer in the daily routine.

For more information on how routines relate to performance, read this Answer on HPRC's website.