MOM! Not Another Book!!

Mom? Mom?! MOOOOOOM!!!
Ah, the chorus that echoes through my house from four small voices. All day. Every day. Some days it feels like the knell of doom… other days it’s full of excitement from some new skill mastered or from besting a sibling at something. However it sounds, however loudly it comes at you, being a parent is both fun and stressful, especially during this whacked-out year we’ve all had.
These days, the “MOOOOM!!” is soon followed with, “Another book? Seriously?!” You would not believe how often I hear that from one of my children, with varying degrees of disbelief, shock, here-she-goes-again eye-rolls, or my absolute favorite, the sass of my preteen daughter. “Seriously Mom?! Geez!” Well, yes, young grasshoppers. Mom loves books. At this point in all of their young lives, you’d think they’d have already figured that out about me. Duh!
Books have always played a huge role in my life, and in theirs, as evidenced by the overflowing bookshelves in our house. What they always seem to forget is how much fun they wind up having when they read!
With the way that things have been going this last year, reading has become even more of a “thing” than it has been before, and it was already a huge thing at my house, being one of my favorite things to do. What other “thing” has become more of a “thing” this last year?
Self-care.
We’ve heard that term more in this last year than we probably ever have before. Does that mean it wasn’t a “thing” before the pandemic that ruined our normal lives and living habits? No, no it doesn’t. What it does mean, at least in my opinion, is that the extra stress, all of the unknowns, all of the unexpected and new hardships we’ve faced, and are still facing, have put far more pressure on us than we could have imagined pre-March 2020, necessitating the need to emphasize self-care.
It's different for everyone. What makes one person feel calmer, resets them, gives them a brain-clean, whatever you want to call it, won’t necessarily work for someone else. What are some of the most popular options out there? Let’s take a look…
According to Huffington Post, simplifying your schedule is the number one thing. Well, okay then. Tell me how are parents going to do that while they’re at home with children all day, potentially homeschooling them, and playing referee for the 15 hours they’re awake? Not to mention working from home. As a parent, simplifying your schedule seems pretty impossible. Today I will take care of child 1 and child 3, and children 2 and 4 can fend for themselves. It doesn’t really work does it?
What else is there?

Read the entire article in the June 2021 issue of InD'Tale magazine.

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