Being a mum is a tough gig. But what job is even more difficult? Being a mum during the Christmas period.
If you’re not queueing in lines at shopping centres for presents, you’re waiting in another line at the supermarket preparing for that Christmas lunch you’ve been dreading since last Boxing Day.
And in between all that Christmas prep, you’re still carpooling your kids everywhere and attending every one of their events that have spilled into your calendar.
Every year, you tell yourself you’ll do less.
Do you though? Absolutely not.
To sum it up, there’s often not one minute of downtime to relieve the stress as Christmas expectations grow.
But US mum-of-two Kristen Hewitt reminded us that mums aren’t superhuman, especially around the holiday season.
“So I did something that some may think is selfish recently, but I really needed it,” the two-time Emmy award-winning TV reporter posted on Facebook.
In the post, Hewitt explained that she missed her daughter’s honour roll assembly to go for a run, and for a reason mums around the world often forget.
“I started to feel the guilt creep in as I made this tough decision, but then I remembered ME, and how hard Thanksgiving and the week that followed was with my husband travelling,” she wrote.
After dealing with tantrums, anxiety, work, the household, pets (you know the list, it seemingly never ends), the mum made the choice to find an opportunity for herself and take it.
LISTEN: We discuss whether or not parents should stay for the entire concert or school event, on our podcast for imperfect parents. Post continues after audio.
“I talked to her about how proud I was of her, but let her know I have to work a game tonight and needed to take care of myself this morning,” she said. “She also had her father and grandmother attending in my place.”
Her daughter's reaction? One of understanding. Her daughter gave her a hug, was grateful for everything her mum had ever done for her, and "learned by example today that SELF-CARE matters".
"Sometimes as parents we have to make hard decisions and show up for ourselves instead of showing up for our kids. And you know what? It’s not selfish - it’s called self-love," she concluded.
Children understand a lot more than we think. They know how much mums do for them, because they know they matter, but that mums matter too.
So next time, take that moment and reclaim your mum sanity. You definitely deserve it.
Top Comments
“To sum it up, there’s often not one minute of downtime to relieve the stress as Christmas expectations grow.”
You can’t be serious? I have four kids, there is DEFINITELY a minute of downtime for anyone to relive Christmas “expectations” stress! And if you genuinely believe there isn’t, I would suggest looking into basic mindfulness habits. (You can incorporate them into daily chores.)
This wasn’t a minor every day award ceremony. And the mum sure did find that spare minute of downtime to take a selfie and post a social media update about her self-care.
In relation to other posters here - the little girl in question had grandma and dad there, it’s not like she had no support. Looking at the context of Mum’s life right now, it seems she literally does not have any time to take care of herself, if going for a run prevents her from having a melt-down or a blow-up or consuming a bottle of wine to herself, where is the problem? Particularly as she said she attends every other school occasion, and let’s face it, they do hand out awards for just showing up these days. Why should it always be Num who is expected to show up for everything anyway? Perhaps we should focusing on the positive experience of Dad and Grandma being there while Mum takes care of her mental health?
Honor roll awards are typically only given to the top students, so it would be a pretty big achievement for that little girl - not just something handed out to every kid. There are legitimate reasons why a parent would miss that occasion but I'm sorry, going for a run ain't one. And if mum is so time poor, then how did she find the time to write a self-congratulatory social media post?
Totally agree, when my husband is suffering from work related anxiety he goes for a run to clear his head, that way he can get to work and focus. Why are working mums always held to a higher standard then working dads? I WISH my mum would have looked after herself more rather than always being a stressed out martyr.