LAS VEGAS — It’s 6:45 a.m. and I feel little fingers against my arm. My eyes flutter open, and before I speak, the 5-year-old does.
“Mommy, can I have an apple and cereal with bananas and can you turn the TV on?” Um, let me gather myself here for the day.
That’s how it begins, and then there is no looking back: breakfast served; two kids dressed; morning trip to the park for a fall leaf project; picnic lunch and back home by 1:30 p.m.
I’m exhausted and they should be too.
I put the 2-year-old in her bedroom for some quiet time and let the 5-year-old get on the computer.
Maybe I’ll get a rest, but first: clean up the kitchen from breakfast; unpack our picnic; pick up the playroom a bit, return a phone call; go over plans for my daughter’s Cinderella birthday party; pay a few bills online.
Yes, now the couch….
“MOOOOOMMMMMY. I wake up now!” comes the sound bellowing from the bedroom.
“Mommy, will you play Twister with us?” comes the question for the other one.
Ugh. What I want to say is Mommy is exhausted, and while I had the energy a few hours ago to play Twister, I don’t have it anymore. I still need to make dinner for the new Tinker Bell movie event at the library in a few hours.
What is happening? I wake up with so much energy and good intentions for the day, but by the afternoon my shoulders are slumping forward, and I barely can muster a game of Twister.
“We’ve been fed that whoever has the longest to-do list wins,” says Michele Borba, parenting expert and author of “12 Simple Secrets Real Moms Know.” “And we’ve become geniuses in multitasking.
“We are already sleep-deprived anyway. We wake up exhausted and we just push, push, push. By the afternoon, we’re over the top,” she said. “By the time the exhaustion hits, that isn’t the image that we’ve been fed or certainly not the image that Mommy next door is doing,” Borba said.
Now hear this, tired moms: You need a timeout.
Borba says that any moment during the day to steal a few minutes of rest time is key to recharging. Rest when the kids do, or take a bath, garden, read a book — whatever works for you.
Breaks have to be worked into a routine or they won’t happen. Borba suggests using your cell phone to remind yourself to take a break.
Stop filling every moment of the day. So the laundry doesn’t get folded immediately or the playroom floor hasn’t been seen in a while. It’s OK.
Yikes. Not putting my laundry away immediately or walking by a messy room is not really something I ever considered. I just do it because it has to be done.
“What children really want most is not all the stuff we do, but a less-stressed mom,” Borba said. “It’s not what we do but who we are that matters to a child.
After Twister; two dinners (one for the kids, one for the adults); the movie party; bath; an argument over who gets to wear which beaded necklace; debate over nightgowns and bedtime books; kitchen cleanup No. 2 for the day; and taking out the garbage, it’s 11 p.m.
I’m really, really ready for bed.
Tomorrow I promise I’m going to take time for myself. Now I just need to let the kids know the plan.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
