‘Is 9 a.m. too early for Tequila? I’m slowly losing my mind. Maybe not so slowly, really.’: Mom speaks to difficulty of parenting during pandemic, says ‘maybe we’ve got to lose it a bit’

“I’m slowly losing my mind. Along with every other parent in America, I suppose. And, maybe not so slowly, really. If I’m honest, in the last three weeks, the sh*tshow that is parenting during a pandemic, has turned into a sh*tstorm. I, for one, was not prepared for such a disaster. Or rather, for me to be such of one. And the house. And the kids.

Anxious, control-freaks like myself DO NOT do well with unforeseen, uncontained, inescapable downpours of crap. A house already bursting at its seams with the accumulated clutter created by five humans and dog, can’t take all five humans and said dog spending all day, ‘err day all up in it.

Fun-loving, adventure-seeking, outing-crazy, socially needy children DO NOT do well when they are bound to the same dirty walls and wiped-out adult, day after day.

Shiitake is hitting the fan, and I’m out of wipes, candles, and Febreze; the mop is missing; and the vacuum isn’t working — at least that’s how it feels. Like I was/am totally and completely ill-prepared for the day-to-day. A day-to-day and hour-to-hour I cannot predict or plan for.

As I said, I’m slowly losing my mind. But, pandemic or no pandemic, maybe we all always are. Maybe, just perhaps, we’ve got to lose it a little bit, to find that we’ve been wasting our minds’ energy trying to control the uncontrollable,
force the unenforceable, and fix the unfixable.

BUT, we can get some sanity back, if the only things we try to effectively manage are the thoughts in our head, the attitude we present, the behavior we exude, and the love we give.

When your world has been rocked, your current reality has got you feeling down, and you feel like you’re drowning in stress, you stay up and afloat by accepting what is, saying ‘eff it’ when it comes to what’s not, and focusing on gratitude in the moment. Easier said than done, I’m sure, but absolutely worth a shot.

Speaking of shots, is 9 a.m. too early for Tequila? Asking for a friend.”

This story was submitted to Love What Matters by Nicole Merritt of Jthreenme, where the post originally appeared. You can follow her on Facebook, her website, or podcast. Do you have a similar experience? We’d like to hear your important journey. Submit your own story here. Be sure to subscribe to our free email newsletter for our best stories, and YouTube for our best videos.

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