There are moms out there who love spending the day with our kids, but at the same time, all the noise and interactions drain our souls, so by nighttime, we’re completely spent.
Motherhood is extremely social.
It’s playdates and park visits. It’s school drop-offs and birthday parties. It’s play spaces, mess, and chaos.
And our children always want something or to be on us/playing with us every second of the day.
There’s no alone time in motherhood.
And when there’s a long day filled with tattling siblings, screaming, and playing nonstop, it’s okay to crave some quiet moments within it.
And we’re still good moms even if we wish the day away.
It’s not selfish.
It’s not something we should feel guilty about.
It’s human.
And we take those quiet moments when we can get them.
We take them in car rides to and from destinations.
We take them in time spent outside.
Because the outdoors is where our kids busy themselves down slides, and the branches sway in the gentle wind softening our children’s loud chatter giving us a chance to breathe.
We take those moments in early bedtime.
Because we’re also the moms who need our children to go to bed early so we can get in our time to prep “the everything” for tomorrow and then unwind.
Because our souls need that unwind time to do something we’re passionate about outside of motherhood, watch mindless television, and “be us.”
We need this timeout for our mental health so we can wake up and do it all over again tomorrow.
And sometimes, this drained feeling trickles over into our interactions with our partners.
Because on some days when our partners want to catch up and talk nonstop about their day, all we want to do is stare at a screen.
And we feel guilty that we’re rushing the conversation along because we do care about what they’re saying, BUT we’re completely exhausted.
So, we need our partners to give us grace.
And it doesn’t mean we’re bad parents or partners, we’re just humans who’ve reached our limit, and need the quiet to recharge.
And that’s more than okay.
This post originally appeared on the author’s facebook page.