It’s a Mom Thing! #momlife

I am a mother of three kids, Ingrid 10 years old, Sawyer 3 years old, and Crew 16 months old, and I am tired. Even when I get sleep, I am still tired. I am down right exhausted. No one told me when I was going to be a mom I was going to be this tired. I knew about the sleep deprivation when they were babies but now all my kids sleep through the night, maybe get up early, but I am still tired.

My husband, Nick, is never tired like I am. He is an amazing man and a wonderful father, completely engaged in our children and our marriage. But he never seems to be as tired as me. He has the energy to train for a half marathon. He will get up early and run or run late at night. When I literally roll out of bed and drag my sorry self to the bathroom with all my effort to put makeup on and let’s not even go there about the hair. It will go in a messy bun just neat enough to pass as office appropriate. It’s truly a miracle if my outfit matches and I am at the office on time.

Whenever I talk to other moms and I ask how it is going, they give me that look like “I am tired” but answer “things are good, just busy.” I know that look and answer so well because we are not supposed to say we are tired or overwhelmed but answer “things are going great” because no one wants to hear how tired you are because they are tired too.

When I really start to think about why moms are so much more tired, I realize our brains never shut off. As I mentioned earlier my husband is a great man but let’s face it: they don’t think like we do. The moms are the one that make things happen. For example, if my husband leaves out of town he just worries about packing his own bag and getting himself to the airport. When I go out of town I am planning the meals for the week asking grandma to come in on Wednesday to help take Sawyer to swimming lessons at Swimtastic and Ingrid to CCD so Nick can stay home with Crew.

The moms are the ones that are scheduling the doctor appointments, planning the treat schedule for soccer, packing the swim bag for lessons, responding to the RSVPs for the birthday party that weekend. When it’s time to go to sleep my husband just crawls right into bed and falls asleep. While he is snoring away I am lying awake planning the schedule for the next day.

Let’s just face it, it is hard being a mom and it’s a tiresome job and it’s a job that is never done. It’s that instinctual gene we carry as the mother to constantly make sure everything’s running as smoothly as possible. Even though most days are crazy and never go as planned, at the end of the day it is all worth it when your 3-year-old snuggles up to you and says “I love you mama” with those big blue eyes. It all becomes very clear as to why we do this, why we stay awake making sure their lives are as great we can make them. Whoever said, “you can sleep when you're dead,” was for sure a mama.