I know why you are exhausted.
It’s because you are negotiating. It’s because you are planning. It’s because you are arguing. It’s because you are yelling.
You wake up every day telling yourself you’ll be calm. You tell yourself won’t lose your sh*t or yell and scream. You tell yourself you’ll meditate, do yoga or—find your “zen.”
But you don’t. You get busy. You have to go somewhere, be somewhere, take someone somewhere. You get distracted. You get frustrated. You yell.
You sometimes compare yourself to other moms thinking you’ve lost the race. You think you’ve lost the race of who’s the calmest, the most organized or the most energetic.
But all the other moms are running their own race in their own minds.
They have their own battles, worries and torrential fears of failure. The other moms are exhausted too, even the ones who look flawless. Appearances can be utterly deceiving.
I know why you are exhausted.
It’s because you are comparing. It’s because you are self-defeating. It’s because you’re having a bad week, day, hour or moment.
You are a mom. You are everything to everyone. You get tired. You get scared. You get frustrated. Being a mom is not for the faint-hearted.
Being exhausted does not mean you are failing at motherhood. It just means you need to rest. And it’s okay to rest.
You’re exhausted because you revolve your life around your family by planning, supporting, working, cleaning, driving, helping, hugging, kissing, mending and bending over backward to adapt to every change, every challenge and every choice.
You are a mom. A glorious, messy, smart, frazzled, wondrous, confused, determined mom. Nothing runs without you and you can’t run on empty. So, it’s really okay to just rest.
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This post originally appeared on The Pondering Nook, published with permission.
