Diagnosis & Prescription

Even though my average week is nowhere near the week described in this post, the diagnosis of "Mommy Burnout" hits the nail on the head when describing my bad days.
That's REALLY hard to admit.
The tongue-in-cheek post describes how to "acheive" mommy burnout.
I've followed the prescription quite well, and it does deliver the promised result!

ugh.


Papa Bear and I agreed quite a while ago that I should take "Mama's Night Off" once a week. Which day of the week has bounced around, adjusting for soccer practices etc, but once a week is so blissful to look forward to! I still struggle with feeling guilty about it... I know that I'm a better wife and mom, and that I'm just generally happier when I take my "night off", but I often feel like I shouldn't need it... That's for another day.

But.

For it to have that good effect on me, I have to actually TAKE it. Each time I do, I decide I'll never skip it again. Then the week rolls by, and I'm "just too busy" to go away... Which, I'm (s-l-o-w-l-y) learning is like being "too dirty to take a shower". (!!) End result? I actually do it about once every six weeks or so.
Yesterday,  I realized I was "burning out", and firmly decided that I WILL take my "night off". As I started planning and dreaming of how I would spend my time, I got further and further into the dumps. Every thing I wanted to do was at home!!  It seemed a cycle:
I was feeling the way I was because I couldn't accomplish these things with all the children and schooling and housework.
I needed some alone time to feel better.
I wanted to spend my alone time at home.
There are 8 children there!! (that's not very alone.)
And here's where you find out just how spectacular my husband is.
(My children too.)
We all played pretend last night:
I pretended I was home alone, and my family pretended I was away.
IT.
WAS.
WONDERFUL.