I planned to answer a reader question about motherhood and burnout in the Mailbag feature of This Week’s Miscellany but my thoughts ran so long that I decided to make it its own post for my generous paid subscribers.
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Here’s the question that prompted my thoughts (edited for length and to remove personal details):
My eyes filled with tears when I read your reference to a season of drowning in burnout and struggling to enjoy your kids. I am in this place. I love my children to pieces, and it is simultaneously SO hard for me to enjoy them. I often feel miserably guilty for feeling like I don't want to be with them, questioning what I'm doing wrong that I don't enjoy motherhood the way I think I 'should.' With my therapist, I've been coming to the conclusion in each of our sessions lately that "I'm just so burnt out," and that seems to be my biggest rub. Is this a normal thing in motherhood?
What did you to do move out of the burnout? I'm assuming that as my children age, and pop more and more into school, my nervous system may chill a bit...I hope it does anyways! But would appreciate hearing if there were specific things you did to tend to yourself during burnout.
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