I got nothing done this weekend, yet I’m exhausted from it, and still have a mom’s to do list the size of Texas.
I was mentally ready to tackle a number of cleaning tasks and projects around the house, but on Saturday morning I just did NOT feel like it. I was tired, and then I swear, there was a full moon or something, because the kids were bouncing off the walls (almost literally), fighting with each other, and zapping all the energy I could muster.
What I did with my time…
I did some monotonous tasks…you know, like the dishes and laundry (which I can’t really put on my to-do list because they’re never really done). But going through the kids’ old clothes, organizing papers, exercising, cleaning the floors…I kept trying, but they just weren’t gonna happen.
Then I took the kids out in the subzero cold (we had to go to Aldi & the library), and that was a mistake. Not just because it was freakin’ cold (well, it is January in Minnesota) but because the whole bouncing-off-the-walls thing continued wherever we went: they wouldn’t do anything I told them to do, my 2-year-old wouldn’t stay in the shopping cart (those kid straps have never held my kids well), etc., and I think I was going to go nuts by the time we got home.
Is this normal? What about mom’s to do list?
Sometimes weekends are like this, and I don’t get the satisfaction of checking anything off my to-do list!
We moms need that satisfaction of checking things off and getting them done.
I posted this experience on my personal Facebook page and another mom friend totally related. She said “Sometimes I write down the things I did before I wrote the list and cross them off too.” So I said “Ha ha! Me too!” I, too, will write down things I already did just so I can enjoy crossing something off a list!!!
Taking charge
So I came up with a more realistic to-do list for these phases:
Tasks
#1-25 Clean up food and other things the kids spill or knock down about 25 times
#26-50 Try to end sibling fights and yell “No, Thor! Do not pull her hair!” or “No, Heidi! Do not push your brother!” (also about 25 times)
Plus, random, miscellaneous kid-related stuff like:
#51-55 Wipe dirty faces
#55-61 Change diapers
#62-75 Compliment children on their creative drawings & writing words for them they can’t write yet
#76-85 Fix toys that sibling broke or whatnot
Then add whatever else you did that consumed some of your energy, just so you can check it off.
If I hadn’t been focused on my “mom’s to do list”…
I probably should have just planned to get nothing done and instead taken the kids somewhere fun all day. I might still have had many of the things on the above checklist, but at least the day wouldn’t have felt like a waste. Clearly they needed to burn off some energy in a constructive way. It was too cold to play outside, but I could have taken them to an indoor playground or something while I sat and spaced out. I think that’s what I’ll do the next weekend I wake up feeling tired (more than usual, that is!). If only I had known…:)