We all (even the husbands) know that us moms are the glue that hold the household together. So....what happens when we get sick?? Day 1 everyone’s hanging in there. Day 2 things slowly start to unravel. By day 3 the kids are wearing the same clothes they had on three days ago, the dishes are piled up to the ceiling and your family is eating frozen corn dogs straight from the freezer.
This kind of thing used to bother me. I would struggle to keep things together even though I felt like death, and you know what happened? Nothing catastrophic I can assure you, except the fact that it took me WAY longer to recooperate, and those things I worried about really didn’t matter in the end. Everyone was still loved and everyone was still fed (well sort of) lol!!!
I remember when Audrey was only three and I had a bad stomach bug. You know how those are. You can barely move off the couch let alone do ANYTHING for your kids, so I went Montessori style in the kitchen. I set up a stool at the sink, filled a couple little pitchers (one for water and one for milk) and laid out bread and peanut butter with a table knife. I let her fix her own lunch and dinner and she had access to milk and water all day that she could pour into her little cup. It was definitely messy in there when it was all over with but she was full and happy, AND she learned some independence to boot!
It‘s times like these that you have to bend the rules: let them eat frozen dinners, opt out of a bath for a night (or two), let them watch too much t.v., and let them play without worrying about the cyclone that is hitting your house. It’s ok to let things go sometimes. Being sick is not the time to be the super mom you’ve been trying to be. I say this as a reminder to myself! I have such a hard time letting these things go, but when you need a break; you need a break. I always say, “We’ll fix it later.”
Give yourself time to heal and just “fix it later”. 😉.
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