One Line To Get You Through The Stressed Mom Days
(Inside: Are you a stressed-out working mom? Or a stressed-out stay-at-home mom? Are you looking for ways to relax? Here’s one idea.)
I heard the familiar jingle as I placed my lanyard with my teaching badge over my head. My classroom keys fell against my black and white striped dress.
“Kids, it’s time for school.” (For all of us – 2 elementary school students, 1 daycare student, and their mama teacher.)
My oldest son (I have three boys) slowly rounded the hallway corner with his backpack, lunch, and bags around his eyes.
“Baby, you don’t look like you feel well,” I flipped the back of my hand against his forehead and felt the heat.
“Yeah – all of sudden, I feel yucky. My throat hurts too,” he mumbled.
Okay. I have one hour before I need to be standing in front of a classroom full of teenage students. Goodness. I made a mad dash for my computer and put in a request for a sub while whispering a silent prayer that the school could find someone quickly without too much hassle.
Then all three boys piled into the car and raced to the high school for me to throw together sub plans. Next, they waited patiently while I typed and copied, and arranged piles across my desk.
We all then hurried back to the car, where we focused on getting my middle son to elementary school. But by the time I dropped him off, it was late, so scrambled out of the car (again) so I could get him checked in.
As we walked back out to the van, my youngest son mentioned that his throat hurts too. (When it rains, it pours.)
So, we headed to the minute clinic for strep tests. After waiting in line then, at last, sitting in front of the doctor, I realized I left my wallet at home, so only my oldest son (who was already in the system) could get a strep test.
With my oldest son diagnosed and his brother not, we all hopped back in the car to drive home to get my youngest son’s insurance card. After a frantic search to no avail, I remembered – my husband had our youngest’s insurance card last. Please not be at a meeting and answer the phone, I repeated as I listened to the ringing. Finally, my husband and I connected and he texted me an image.
Hoping a picture of my youngest son’s insurance card would be good enough, we drove back to the Minute Clinic, parked the car, got everyone out, and went to the back of the line (again) for my youngest to be seen.
While waiting for our turn, I picked up my oldest son’s prescription (he tested positive for strep) and bought my kids Gatorade to drink.
When it was finally my youngest son’s turn, the doctor took one look at my son downing his Gatorade and told us the test would not work if he just drank any liquids. (Who knew?) So we were sent a place back in line to let time would fix the problem.
What a morning.
I don’t know about you, momma, but my stress level can go from zero to a hundred in 1.5 seconds with these kinds of stressful days.
Driving home after seeing the doctor, I looked at my fingers and realized I was gripping the wheel. My heart raced, my body felt tense, and all of a sudden I was deeply fatigued by these over-the-top-stressed-out feelings I get in crazy-mom-moments.
“Enough,” I told myself with as much authority I could muster up. I had a talk with myself…
Here’s what I CAN NOT control about my stressed-mom day…
Motherhood is busy and a lot of work. It’s tiring, mentally challenging physically draining. It just is those things, if it wasn’t these last-minute illnesses, it would be something else. I can’t control the craziness. Busy life = motherhood. The end.
Besides, I’ve always wanted to be a mom. And if I want the true experience of what motherhood is, I have to experience the joys and the pain, the wonderful days and the incredibly hard days – both sides of the coin that encompass the journey of motherhood.
Here’s what I CAN control about my stressed-mom day…
The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.
Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company…a church…a home.
The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past…we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it.
And so it is with you. We are in charge of our attitudes. Charles R. Swindoll
In other words, just because my day IS crazy, didn’t mean I had to let myself FEEL like it was crazy
That thought brought me comfort. So I turned the words again in my mind – just because my day IS crazy, didn’t mean I had to let myself FEEL like it was crazy.
I took deep breaths and intentionally relaxed my body as I repeated to myself, “Mom days will be crazy, but I don’t have to let myself feel crazy.” Deep breath. Let the stressed feeling slowly fade away. Feel my body relax. Repeat.
I did this the whole 15-minute car ride home and as I walked into my home and arranged blankets on the couch for my sick kid. Thankfully, in this instance – the simple strategy worked.
I felt my body, my heart, my mind relax into my crazy role. And the rest of the day was full of snuggles, movies, and Gatorade.
Mommas – LIFE IS CRAZY….
But, life is also very, very good.
Read more in the “Grow Your Grit” Series
When we become moms a light switch is flipped on. In juggling work, family, and household – we grow bolder; we learn to speak up. And somewhere in it all, we find our inner Mama Bear. We grow our determination, knowledge, love, patience, endurance, perspective, wisdom, and problem-solving ability – we strengthen our grit. It’s not always easy, though. Growing our grit through motherhood is most definitely a process… Read on…
GROW YOUR COURAGE
Parenting Persuades You to be a More Courageous Mom Every Day
A Mom’s Quick Prayer for Perseverance that Will Lift You Up
FIND PEACE IN THE CHAOS
One Line to Get You Through the Stressed Mom Days
HEAL YOUR HURT
I’m So Hurt: What Healing Sometimes Looks Like
When Life Knocks You Down & You’re Tired of Your Struggle
Miscarriage Grief: 5 Reasons Why a Miscarriage is so Emotionally Painful
EMBRACE CHANGE
Find Hope Now in the Story of a Mom Who Didn’t Want Change
Join this community of moms raising tweens and teens
Your brain bounces between your day at work, what time(s) your kids need to be at practice, your teen’s missing school assignments, that you haven’t called your mom lately, the load of the laundry to be switched, “What’s for dinner?” and “Why are 3 of my brain-tabs frozen?”
You are raising tweens and teens and college-age kids – the unique parenting phase where everything gets easier…and harder.
Join our community of raising big kids and get occasional email encouragements in your inbox including instant access to the freebie library. It’s free and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Cheryl is a mom of 3 boys, wife, speaker, high school teacher, and author of Empowered Moms & Kids. She has a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership and is passionate about learning and teaching. On www.empoweredmomsandkids.com you’ll find inspiration and encouragement for moms raising tweens and/or teens. Read more in the “about” section of this page.
Love this. So true. The craziness of life can bring us down, but we have to refocus on the good, our blessings and God!!! I agree.
I am constantly refocusing! 🙂 Thanks for the comment. I haven't looked at your blog in a while, I am heading over there now.
Hi Cheryl! Thanks for all you said. Sorry about the strep. We have that quote from Swindoll on Tucker’s school binders. 😍