Everyday Systems

My husband was complaining about co-workers always wanting to go out to lunch. Not from a food quality or diet perspective, but from a fiscal one. Then we got to talking about food that's so often available at work, and social expectations and how to do the social dance when it conflicts with personal goals (like, you know, getting a kid through college without crippling the boy with debt, or sticking to No-S!)

I mentioned an office party I went to with my cup of coffee, and said, "It's not that I don't LIKE Ms. Departing Co-worker, but that's not a call for an S-day."

"So people that are worthy of an S-Day for you should be flattered, huh?" he asks with a grin.

We had a laugh, then I got to thinking. I don't take a lot of NWS days. I have 14 this year -- which averages over the year to a little more than one a month. (My son's birthday, my husband's birthday, a cruise for our 25th anniversary, a beach trip, Thanksgiving and Christmas).

My criteria is basically birthdays of immediate family, our yearly beach trip, Federal holidays for which food is part of the celebration and big milestone celebrations. Even then, the S day would be more likely participating in the party and having some cake or something, but otherwise having a normal day.

What is your criteria for an NWS day and is it always totally off the hook, or merely confined to the celebratory event?

Personal NWS days for me are limited to immediate family birthdays, our anniversary and that's about it. I usually end up making most of these S events (e.g. anniversary dinner, birthday party with cake), rather than a whole day.

For the "holiday" type NWS days: I don't do New Year's, as here it is more about drinking than eating. We don't do thanksgiving here. I don't bother with Halloween, it's not as big here and I kind of feel like trick or treating and candy is for children.

I host a Solstice dinner once a year in Winter (June). I make that an S day. We usually do the dinner on a weekend though, so it isn't an extra S.

The only truly "off the hook" days for me are the 24th and 25th of December, and Easter Sunday for the chocolate eggs.

I'm a lot more liberal with my NWS days, mainly because we have lots of people in our daily lives; thus, lots of birthdays to celebrate (not just family), plus two sets of holidays (US because we are Americans, Montenegrin because we live in Montenegro).

However, rarely do I look at any S day as a "day to pig out"; even the big holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas are about festive foods rather than huge quantities. All that to say, most NWS days are event-focused: eg., a piece of cake at a birthday celebration.