How to Get a Thanksgiving Kitchen in Control

Video Transcript

"Hello! I'm Matt Cail and on behalf of Expert Village, I'm going to show you today how to survive a big family Thanksgiving. Some studies have found one of the biggest sources of stress around Thanksgiving are people having their space invaded. Humans can be territorial creatures. Even on subconscious level when we want to have guests and company around, there can also be umbrage about it like these people are in my space. You start having certain switches, and before you know you're like clawing at people and you don't even certainly know why. To acknowledge that part of human nature is to also come up with a couple ways to combat, and these are easy. One of the biggest places involves the kitchen. A lot of have had it. You're preparing food in there for everybody, trying to get everything ready, and people keep coming and going, "Can I help you? Can I help you? Can I help you?" After a while, it gets really, really grading. Basically, setting up a kitchen no go zone. Setting up some parameters like you know this times I'm doing this stuff, everybody out. Don't bug me in here right now. It's going to reduce stress levels a lot. Maybe you're totally fine with people being all around you and milling and getting a little bit in your face about when dinner is going to be ready, but odds are you'll lower the stress levels. You'll get less ticked off at family members and friends if they're not popping their heads in the kitchen all the time. A kitchen no go zone, as I call it, is a good idea."