Tired Mama.com

Happy Thanksgiving!

This past Monday was Thanksgiving Day here in Canada.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Belated.

Yep, I'm late.

Anyways...

I had all my kids at home for the Thanksgiving weekend.

It was great.

Yes, I fed them turkey and pumpkin pie.

And yes, they got to see their grandparents.

But, you know what?

My kids are all young adults now.

And young adults are loud.

And they like to tease each other.

And they like to tease their parents.

And they like to stay up really, REALLY late.

And they are really messy.

And I mean really, really, REALLY messy.

So, my weekend?

It was loud, messy, tiring, tease-filled and uh, fattening.

Yep, it was perfect.

And I loved every minute of it.

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving too.

 

Be nice...to you.

I took this picture when I was away last week with a group of girlfriends.

Do you talk to yourself like you love yourself? 

I don't.

But, I do think I need to do this more often and I know many of my friends do too.

Which got me wondering - why are women, especially moms, so hard on themselves?

Oh, right. I think I actually know the answer to this. 

It's because if anything goes wrong with our kids it always seems to be the Mama who gets blamed. 

This blaming of Moms starts the day our children are born and we are bombarded with information on how to put them down to sleep the right way - back, front side...pick one! Just know that in two years science will have discovered something new about it and you'll have done the wrong thing.

And the criticism continues through our children's youngest years as we try and sort out how long to nurse (or not nurse) them. And don't even think about nursing them in public....

As our kids get older all Mamas will be accused of ruining our kids by either being helicopter parents or we'll be told we are not engaged enough with them and that's causing mental health issues. 

When our kids are teens, we'll be told we're babying them if we pack them wholesome lunches,but if we let them sort it out for themselves then we are told we're bad Mamas because they aren't getting the proper nutrients they need to grow healthy brains and learn properly at school. 

Don't even get me started on how horrible Moms are about setting bedtime hours and trying to set guidelines around computers and video games. Whatever we try and do there is wrong too. Mamas are always too lenient or too strict.

Seriously, Moms cannot win in our society. Okay, PARENTS can't win. 

So, we do the best we can and you know what?

The kids seem to be turning out all right.

Which brings me back to the sign.

Speak nicely to yourselves, Mamas and non-Mamas too.

Because you deserve it!

And God knows, you're never going to hear it from anyone else.

But honestly? You're doing great. 

And you're beautiful too.

Worry lines and all.

I hate making dinners too...

I’ve been away from my family for about five days now.

I'm having a lovely time.

All has been going well at home without me there too. 

Yesterday, my daughter sent a Snapchat picture out to me and her millions of followers. It was a sweet picture of her father making dinner for her at home (after three straight days of them eating out together).

She captioned the picture - Dad is making me dinner. I love him sooo much.

Which is lovely.

But, I’ve been making her dinner pretty much every night at home for the last sixteen YEARS.

He makes one dinner and he’s a Snapchat hero.

I’ve made roughly five thousand and eight hundred dinners for her and what do I get?

Complaints.

Yep, usually all I get is complaints.

Sigh.

A better me? Really?

Something very strange is happening in my life.

I’m eating healthier and exercising regularly.

What happened and what changed?

I suppose it’s partly due to my kids getting older so I now have more free time to look after myself.

But do you want to know what the main reason is?

PEER PRESSURE.

Yep, all my friends seem to be getting on the ‘be healthier’ bandwagon and they’ve somehow managed to drag my pudgy butt along with them.

Sigh.

This week I’ve been taking a clean eating course.

I was shocked to discover that my usual diet of chips, donuts and cookies are not on it.

Next week, I’m leaving my husband and kids behind and I'm heading off on a fitness and spa retreat.

I have no idea how I got talked into this.

Oh, right.

Yes, I do.

It was PEER PRESSURE.

This place that I’m going on vacation is all about exercise and healthy eating.

They only serve vegetarian food.

They don’t serve dessert.

I will be expected to attend multiple exercise classes a day.

As I am packing my stuff tonight, I am wondering what the hell I was drinking thinking when I agreed to this.

Seriously.

There are twelve other women going on this journey with me.

They have all told me MULTIPLE times that I'm going to have fun.

I don't think I believe them.

Anyone know how many packages of Oreo's, bottles of wine and hamburgers I can smuggle through the airport before they stop me at security?

Sigh.

Ironing? What's that?

My youngest daughter has to wear oxford style uniform shirts to school.

Up until this year I’ve bought her wrinkle free shirts that don’t require a lot of care, they haven’t always looked perfect right out of the dryer, but they’ve always looked um, okayish.

(For the record if there ever was an important occasion at school I would iron one of the wrinkle free shirts for her – I do have some standards. Low ones.)

This year, however, my youngest daughter decided she wanted to buy a big brand name oxford shirt that is not wrinkle free to use for her school shirts.

These particular cotton shirts come out of the dryer looking like crap.

I told her that if I was buying these shirts for her, she had to iron them.

She did - for the first three days of school.

Today, her shirt is a wrinkled mess.

But, she’s a teenager so, she doesn’t care.

And me?

I guess I’m about to learn not to care either.

La-la-la-la-la.

Better things to worry about than this, right?

Sigh.