I’ve got a riddle for you: What do you do when you’re totally and completely burned out by the one thing in your life that you can never escape?
OK, so that’s not much of a fun riddle, but still. What would you do?
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I was definitely at a burnout moment in mothering my four young kiddos, working full-time, and some other personal issues I really can’t get into at the moment, but they were there—a constant weight on my shoulders, a drizzling, rainy dark cloud above my head, an emotional soul-sapping energy I couldn’t shake. I started each and every day with the best of intentions, but before I knew it, I was slipping into the drudgery, dreading every diaper change, dragging out bedtime because I honest-to-goodness couldn’t get my kids just to freaking sleep and I had tried every trick of the trade.
I get really super-duper annoyed by the trillions of cliched articles and “advice” out there for moms like me on how to survive burnout.
I felt like I was going through the motions, that I couldn’t possibly go on, but I had to. It was like I wanted so badly to be this fun, adventurous, happy mom who whips up creative snacks, plans family outings and drinks wine at night while snuggling with my husband like moms are supposed to do. But instead, I was grumpy, exhausted, and my husband and I fell asleep in one of the kids’ bedrooms separately every.single.night. because that is life.
Sometimes I would get really super-duper annoyed by the trillions of cliched articles and “advice” out there for moms like me on how to survive burnout. Hire a sitter! they say. Call up Grandma! they advise. Time time for yourself! they proclaim.
Well guess what, annoying advice-givers of the world? Some of us can’t afford help, can’t find a sitter, don’t have grandparents that babysit at the drop of a hat, and frankly, making time for ourselves just feels like yet another task that is more work than it’s worth, mmmk? So just stop.
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