“Spoke to a friend today on the phone and she said, ‘I’m so tired.’
I asked her, what did you do today?
She replied with, ‘Nothing. I did nothing today.’
After talking to her for another 5 minutes, I heard about her day. She got up early, made her husband breakfast, made him his lunch, dropped the kids off, came home with her baby and played games, rocked him to sleep, made lunch, did the washing, did the grocery shopping, cooked dinner, bathed the kids, fed the dogs, took them for a walk and when I called she was folding laundry.
So, I said, wow you’re right, you did do nothing.
Nothing for herself. Not a damn thing.
She made everyone’s day a whole lot easier but felt like she achieved nothing.
And for most mothers, that’s what it means when we say we are feeling tired, like it’s relentless, like we are unfulfilled. Like we are unappreciated and invisible.
After so many long days of doing nothing, and feeling depressed, I will say this. Socialize.
Go out for a walk, take your babies to a playgroup, a coffee with a friend, anything to make you say that you did something. Cleaning will always be there, as soon as you’re done there’s another area to be cleaned, laundry will always be piling up and your husband can make his own damn sandwich. Get out, call a friend, unleash all the crap that is silently swirling in your head while you’re doing nothing and make your day feel like you’ve done something. Your mental health needs it. You need it.
For one day out of the week. Do something. Commit to it and don’t cancel. Just go.
You deserve a life of something’s even when you become a mother.”
This story was submitted to Love What Matters by Laura Mazza of Mum on the Run, where it originally appeared. Submit your story here, and subscribe to our best love stories here.
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