Is Anyone Else Exhausted?

Is anyone else exhausted?

It seems so. Everyone I talk to at the moment seems tired and worn out. People are stressed, busy and just plain exhausted. The world is full of noise and manic energy, and we just never seem to stop.

When did our lives get so damn busy?

Maybe it’s our stage of life. Maybe that time of your life where we all have kids, be they babies, toddlers or teenagers with better social lives than our own. Maybe we are all at that stage where we are trying to balance the unsolvable juggling act of work versus family versus just having time to collapse on the lounge and chill. I was busy in my twenties, had my first bub, got my first teaching job…..but then I hit my thirties and BOOM! It’s like the only time that I stop is when I’m asleep. And even then, I’m dreaming about work and kids. I can’t even escape when I’m unconscious!

Maybe it’s our age. Maybe where you’re up to in your life map has nothing to do with it. Maybe we just all hit our mid 30s and from then on, amongst the hectic chaos that is 2017, we just never take the time to step off the treadmill.

Maybe it’s our generation. All those awesome feminists in the 60s and 70s, who fought and took a stand for the amazing choices that we have today….maybe that all gave us a subconscious sense of owing it to both ourselves and those strong feminist women of the 60s, a sense that if we don’t at least try to have it all that we are letting down the team. That we are letting down those women who weren’t allowed to work, or vote or have a say. Who all chipped away bit by bit so that we could.

Maybe it’s the mother guilt. The guilt that drills into the back of your brain every time you hear about another kid who is doing some amazing extra curricular activity and you think, “Oh shit, is my kid missing out because they aren’t learning to yodel like the kid next door?” (Just kidding, learning to yodel is so Von Trapp and Julie Andrews). When you feel like your kids should be getting every opportunity that you can afford. When their busy adds to your busy.

Whatever it is. I’m stuffed. I’m tired, and exhausted, and in need of a good holiday with a pina colada in hand. (Lucky for me, I’m a teacher and it’s the last week of term!)

So here’s to admitting that you are tired. Here’s to admitting that you just need a break and that you need things to calm down for a bit. No matter what your job is, how many or how old your kids are, how many extra curricular activities they do, how much running around you have to do before the next lot of visitors arrive….Here’s to just stopping and taking a breath.

The school holidays start in exactly 2 days. No manic mornings, no ballet, no Tae Kwon Do, no piano lessons….and if anyone is looking for me, I’ll be snuggled up on the lounge watching a good movie with my kids, just…..slowing down.

---