Kudos To All The Mothers Out There

As mothers might agree, being a mother is hard work. Balancing the life of raising children, working in order to contribute to expenses, keeping laundry caught up, dishes washed and a house livable, while also taking care of yourself and keeping relationships, it’s a lot to balance.

I am lucky to have a partner in this journey called life to help me. Even with extra hands and us working together to keep everything caught up, there is never enough time in the day to accomplish everything that needs to be done. My to-do list is always six to seven tasks deep, with three to four of those tasks always getting carried over to the next day. Sometimes those tasks are even carried over week to week because of forgetfulness, distractions and/or timing.

I usually have so much going on, that I have to write down a particular task in order to remember to complete it later on. When things take longer than they should or if the task is more complicated than it should be, I get overwhelmed and frustrated. Especially if my children don’t get the memo that I had to get something done that doesn’t directly involve them such as making an appointment on the phone, starting a load of laundry or emptying the dishwasher to find out the dishes didn’t actually get fully cleaned.

Keeping up with the day-to-day tasks of work, raising children and housework, often makes me neglect friendships and even the relationship to myself. Taking care of myself is always the last priority on my to-do list as by the end of the day, I’m completely over doing anything, including de-stressing, and end up going to bed. Balancing my relationship with my husband, parents, brother and friends often go on the back burner since I am already burnt out from everything else that I have and still need to accomplish. Eventually there comes a point where I explode. The method of explosion is often different, where sometimes I just mentally check out, where I snap at my husband, don’t respond to friends and/or just start getting an attitude with everyone I interact with.

I don’t know how other moms do it day-in and day-out. I don’t know how I get out of the funk, but eventually I do and the cycle continues of being okay, being overwhelmed, explode and repeat.

I know my situation isn’t unique and each mother has a different situation and different perspective. I applaud those mothers who appear to have it together, even if you might not. To those mothers who are about ready to lose it in the grocery store, but keep it together long enough to get home before losing it. To those mothers who don’t know how the day will end because nothing will go right.

Kudos to all those mothers out there. Make sure to take care of yourself, ask for help when you need it, and try to carve out time for you.