Hello January. Back to reality… and it’s okay
Photo by Laura Chouette on Unsplash
It’s January. The festive season is over. The Christmas tree is back in storage. For many of us, it’s time to step out of the December slumber and back into reality.
It’s Monday blues on steroids.
I don’t know about you, but even though I was still working for most of December, that month felt so much calmer.
I attribute this to the fact that kids don’t have school and extracurriculars. Which essentially means no morning madness to get children ready for school before work. No lunchbox prep. No uniforms to think about (and no mental laundry mapping to ensure there is a clean uniform for each day).
No leaving work in a mad rush to be there in time for the van. No scrambling to get stuff sorted before ballet, football, jujitsu or whatever extracurricular they have - before sorting the reading and the homework in between the cooking etc.
“The other day I was talking to a fellow mummy and she reminded me in a powerful quote about motherhood: ‘The days are long, but the years are short’.”
Waking up in the morning and simply getting ready and going to work - that felt like a holiday.
December is the month when life slows down. And it’s not only school. People are generally more relaxed because of shutdowns. True that it’s not easy to figure out how to entertain children for two weeks but, unlike the seemingly endless summer holidays, December feels different. Because we can see the end in sight.
And the world twinkles.
And once the month is over and the “happy-new-years” have been said, it’s time to head back to reality.
This is January: The pace is going to get faster. There will be tiring days.
But you know what? When I catch myself getting all worked up about this, I remind myself that there will be a time when things might slow down too much. My child will grow and no longer need me. I will have much less to juggle. I might love it.
But I might miss it all. We might miss it all.
The other day I was talking to a fellow mummy and she reminded me in a powerful quote about motherhood: “The days are long, but the years are short”.
So as I start a new year I remind myself to embrace those long days. Or, at least, try to… because, let’s face it, this reality is not too bad in the bigger scheme of things.