I’m not perfect: I’m taking a duvet day

One of the most difficult things about being a stay at home mum is that you can’t take an unscheduled day off.

If you’re sick or tired you still have to look after the kids, no matter how much you want to close the curtains and curl up into bed.

Influencing social media, one post at a time

Now, I’m a firm believer in showing the good and the bad on social media.

Too many young people see perfect instagram photos of amazing holidays, luxurious meals and once-in-a-lifetime experiences.

They don’t see the mundane, the bad hair days, the run-of-the-mill… It gives them a disappointingly skewed perception of how their life should be.

That is why I try to write about the highs and the lows of my busy, crazy life with my children; my vomit-spectacular holiday being a case in point.

Which brings me back to this post.

On the edge

I was a wreck. I’d had three weeks of very poor sleep, with no respite: A week of no sleep from non-stop family illness, followed by a week of a needy 14 month old refusing to sleep in a strange room whilst visiting family, followed by a week of no sleep once we got home (bad habits? Teething? Developmental leap? Still getting over virus? Anyone’s guess). Littlie would only sleep either on me or, at the very least, next to me clutching my arm for dear life.

Anyone who’s experienced sleep deprivation will understand how completely soul-destroying it is. You can’t function. You can’t do anything properly. Even if you can hold it together, that all crumbles at the slightest stumbling block. You’re quick to anger, impatient, tearful, depressed. Things look bleaker, simple things seem harder…

On Wednesday morning I reached my limit. Littlie has a habit of pinching and biting when he’s tired. So I was lying there in tears getting bitten and pinched, not able to stop him, too tired to retaliate. My husband helpfully tried to suggest what to do to make him stop, but I blew up at him saying I was too tired to do anything. I shouted and then burst into tears.

Rescue

My husband, the hero, knew then that I’d hit my limit. We’d been talking more and more about how my tiredness had been getting worse with each passing day (I do all the nights as he doesn’t function on a disturbed nights sleep, but he does often take the kids when they wake in the morning). The saint that he is, knew I was hitting a wall and decided to step in a give me a break.

He worked from home that morning, sent me to bed and I got 3 hours unbroken sleep until 11am. When he woke me up (as he needed to go into work) he’d cooked lunch, cleaned the kitchen, given Littlie a nap and kept an eye on the Biggie and Middlie whilst trying to answer emails. Words can’t express how grateful I was at that moment.

I’m very lucky that I have a husband who could read the signs, realise he needed to step in, and have the flexibility with his job to act on it.

Duvet day

Having been reviviez with a sleep, but still not yet human, I looked outside and it was raining. A lot. To boot, the forecast predicted LOTS of rain for the rest of the day.

The girls were watching TV when I came downstairs. So I let them continue while I gave Littlie some lunch.

– They watched TV while I tried to put Littlie down for a nap.

– They watched TV when Little was pottering around downstairs because he wouldn’t nap.

– They watched TV when I tried again to put Littlie down for a nap.

– They watched TV with me while Littlie slept.

Revived

By 4pm, Biggie and Middlie has watched TV for about 5 hours, with a break halfway for a lunch of buttered pasta.

Littlie had been well fed, nourished and rested, but hadn’t exactly had a hands-on stimulating day.

To relieve some of the mum guilt, I turned off the TV and sent the girls off to play. They proceeded to have a rousing game of ‘unicorn catchers’ as only 6- and 4-year-old sisters can.

And life carried on as normal.

It’s not my proudest parenting day, but I had been rejuvenated.

I’m calling it my duvet day.

I was still tired, but I was thinking much better equipped to be ‘fun, active, adventurous mum’ again. It’s like I pressed the reset button.

Thank you hubby, I couldn’t have done it without you ❣

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