I consider myself to be a very on the go, busy person. I like to think of myself as a cruise director. We have two kids that are involved in multiple sports and after school activities. There is always something going on. I love our busy! I love the role of organizing and directing everything so that it all runs smoothly.
But there was one Saturday morning not that long ago, where I woke up and just couldn’t. Not because we had so much going on that I was overwhelmed. I wasn’t sick or coming down with something. For some reason, I just couldn’t. I could not for the life of me drag myself out of bed to begin the day. My body and brain needed a mental break. Why is it as moms, we don’t give ourselves permission to take mental health days?! Not sick days, but actual mental health days. Why do we instantly feel guilty if we feel 100 percent fine, but just need a minute or a day or a weekend to mentally reset?
That morning, I laid in bed and could smell the cinnamon rolls (our Saturday morning tradition) and instead of joining my family for breakfast, I texted my husband to bring one up to me! One of the kids brought a plate up and asked when I was planning on getting out of bed. When I told her I wasn’t, she immediately went downstairs and said, “Um, I think Mommy is sick.” You guys… I laid in bed for hours and watched TV and napped!
It was glorious…until about noon when I was hit with this overwhelming sense of mom guilt. I hadn’t done one productive thing all day! I hadn’t done any laundry, or cleaned anything or driven anyone to practice. There were phone calls that needed to be made, meals that needed to prepped and the new week to get ready for. For goodness sake, I hadn’t even brushed my teeth! I started ugly crying about how I was such a failure and ran downstairs apologizing. Only to find, the dishes put away, counters cleaned and my family playing a board game in the living room. When they saw my tears, they all looked at me like I’d lost my mind and asked if I needed to go take a nap.
No major disasters happened. Nothing burned down, the world did not stop, and everyone was alive and well. In that one lazy day, I learned that life goes on even if Mommy isn’t running it. It’s OK to take a mental health day. In fact, it’s necessary to keep the ship moving! Mommy’s good mental health is vital to making sure our day to day runs the way it should.
So I challenge each mommy out there to take a guilt-free hour, day or weekend to themselves. Do what you want when you want, watch adult shows, eat what you want! You are important, too.
