In late 2023, THENCE launched a Webzine specifically designed to help families particularly with younger children think about activities and avoid moments of stress during the school winter break. This break in North America occurs in mid to late December.

This begs the question: why design a webzine for such a specific niche? There’s two answers.

First THENCE is a team in which many of us are balancing work and family responsibilities, and we discuss how fragile this balance can seem at times.

Second THENCE’s founder Dr. Katherine Schlatter is a specialist in health education, and she saw from the public health data that holidays can be very stressful, an coincide with increases in self-harm, mental health crises, domestic violence and other forms of abuse. The increases happen school is out and families are burdened with extra expectations over spending, gifting, child care and hosting. Thus holidays, despite carrying expectations of happiness, togetherness, and abundance of joy and giving, often create stress for many individuals. For example those lacking strong community support, or families under common stresses such as financial difficulties, and health challenges, may be particularly vulnerable to feeling unsupported, isolated, or even simply exhausted.

The Webzine invites all school educators to prioritize awareness that families may be struggling and expectations on classrooms should respect this, or even find channels in which to make relevant access to community resources.