Trust me, all of us feel this way at one time or another. Parenting is not for the weak, but we’re all strong enough to make it through. I do have some advice and words of encouragement.
- It is all of us. That parent that you think has it all together…they are crying or has cried recently either inside or out.
- Get some sleep, it seems impossible …but you need to try to get some so you can make it through. That dirty house will just get dirty again if you clean it…take a nap and leave it for tomorrow (or 18 years from now when the kids are grown).
- There is no grading system for a parent. Grade yourself on the curve because everyone else is too busy to give you a grade. If they are looking at you and judging you it’s just to make themselves feel better.
- Eat a piece of chocolate. It is scientifically proven that chocolate makes people happy, so have a piece (call it doctor’s orders).
- Exercise (I know, I have failed at making time for this one), I recently started playing racquetball and my wife is right (don’t tell her), exercise did make me feel better and less stressed.
- Get some sunshine or at least a Vitamin D supplement. We are all pretty much Vitamin D deficient and it makes us feel tired and depressed and can lead to weight gain.
- Splurge on yourself every once in a while. We are all so focused on making our children’s lives better than ours that we are making it easy for ourselves by making our lives suck. Every once in a while do something nice or cool for yourself so your kids want to grow up and be cool like you and get to do “grown-up things”.
- Try not to judge other parents. They are just trying the best they can to make it through just like you. There are too many “Mommy Wars” out there. If you don’t have time, take care of your kids and if you have extra time to judge someone else, take a nap.
- Look at pictures, I don’t know why but when I look at pictures and videos of my kids it makes me happy. It shows me how far they have come and all they have become. It makes me happy and I’m sure it will you as well.
- If all else fails look at your parents. Trust me they made mistakes too and felt the same way. You turned out OK in spite of all they did to screw you up. Your kids will as well, so laugh at your kids, laugh at yourselves and laugh at your parents. We had kids to bring us joy and make our lives complete, loosen up a little so that can happen.
