Captain of the ship..

When my husband works away and is gone for long periods of time. I am the captain of the ship, I am the go to person..

Mum can I have this? do that? I don’t want that! I don’t want this! I’m not sleepy it’s still sunny outside..!!

Dont get me wrong I know

it’s the same for single Mums and we all just really need to get on with it..

But...

For me during Covid , bedtimes have been a bit of a struggle. I know it was because there weren’t as busy during the day so not as sleepy at night.

I have four children 9 and under my littlest is 3 and doesn’t ever seem sleepy.. he is adorable but at 11pm after a 3 hour attempt at bedtime routine .. I found myself putting my ear pods in and standing in the garden rather than listen to the boys running up and down the hall..

Now they thought it was the funniest time ever.. and I don’t like to shout especially at bedtime.

So the garden seemed the best bet.. fresh air deep breaths and some nice music in my ears.

now that may seem a bit odd but

after 4 nights of the same I felt my ship was sinking.

This overwhelm didn’t just happen because the bedtime routine was out of whack this was a knock on effect.

Not getting out the house apart from

the garden not really seeing or speaking to many other adults.

My five year old is type 1 so I have many nights when I don’t sleep because he has been hypoglycaemic.

My self care had gone out the window, I wasn’t sleeping great, I stopped journaling was drinking more wine.

I had a pile of paperwork to

go through, calls to make the house to keep, etc etc

The number one thing was I the lack of sleep, everything is worse when you don’t sleep.

I was exhausted and felt like I was sinking,

So how did I fix it...

How not to burn out, stop those bedtime melt downs when the kids wont go to sleep?

I had to make sure my self care became back on point.

1-Get to bed and to sleep as soon as the kids go down,

2-turn my phone off when I’m bed

3- get fresh air as much as possibly

4- speak to other adults

5- don’t drink too much wine

6- (drink wine 😂)

7- kidding aside don’t drink to much alcohol can you imagine hangovers and feeling like shit and home schooling 🤦‍♀️ 8- exercise regular

9- self pamper .. bath oils candles

10- self love everyday ... You are doing the best job you can, keep the children happy and don’t give your self a hard time.

Reminded myself everyday that you cannot pour from an empty cup..

If you are exhausted things feel worse,

priorities the important things.

Happy Content Children = Happy Mummy

I ask myself how do I want to feel?

What can I do to create that feeling?

If I am the captain of my ship I need to show up everyday in a positive way to for the children.

Which means keeping my state on point.

Which means following my self care plan.

#doingmybest

#selfcare