However, no matter how much you love your job, whatever it may be, it isn’t always easy. It isn’t always fun. We all have days and weeks and seasons where we just want to quit, stay at home moms and working moms alike.
As stay at home moms, there are days where the kids are grumpy, you can’t get outside due to weather, everything is breaking, the phone won’t stop ringing, you totally forget to take something out for dinner, and you aren’t sure of the last time you showered. Around here, we just call that Tuesday. Those days just have a way of kicking our butts and making us feel like life is never going to be better again. We start to worry that this is the new normal.
So what do we do? How do we cope with those hard days?
Let go of the guilt
Don’t listen to anyone who says, “You should be happy. You wanted to do this.” In fact, just don’t talk to those people when you are having a rough day. Remember that no matter what your job, in the house or out, you are going to have rough days. It’s just life.
Take a day off
Stay in comfy clothes, don’t clean, don’t do most chores but you probably should still cook dinner or else you will have an angry family. Take the day to veg out on the sofa and watch movies with the kids, surf the internet without feeling like you should be doing something, play with the kids just because it’s fun. Just take a “down day.” I find I need one about once a week. Although, I admit, I do sometimes take more than one. It depends on how hard the week.
Pray
Maybe this should be number one but I find that there isn’t a spot on the list for it. I’m just doing it all the time. Some days its, “God, keep me from duct taping my child to the wall” (no, I would never do that but some days it is oh so tempting). Other days its, “God, I love my child but I don’t like her very much recently. Help us find a new ground.” God’s help is the only way I make it through the hard days.
There is no “magic answer” to those hard days. They aren’t going to just stop coming. Just know that they won’t last forever. Kids can’t be in the “terrible twos” their entire life. Newborns eventually grow up and sleep better. Your eight year old will eventually figure out that lying about silly things isn’t a good way to live her life. Your teenager will eventually appreciate you and turn the music down. Okay, so your teenager may not turn the music down they do eventually move out.
Even though it’s hard to remember this when you are near tears from being so tired and stressed, the days may be long but the years are so short.
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