Tired Moms Deserve a Better Plan. Here’s Mine.

There is tired. The single person stayed up studying or maybe drank too much hangover tired. 

Then there is parent tired. Where you decided to have kids without thinking of how much being a parent entails. The late nights, early mornings, reading books, rubbing backs, and falling asleep in your kids' bed, tired. 

And then, there is waking up in the middle of the night to your kid screaming for you, tired. You are in a daze and immediately go into fight mode to save your kid from whatever is ailing them at that hour. You run to their room to find them throwing up in their bed. Your heart starts to slow down now that it knows you don’t need to fight an intruder, and it goes back to dazed and confused mode with the “What the actual fuck phrase” on repeat in your brain, kinda tired.

I swear there is no kind of tired like that kind. It takes you out for the rest of the day, and you immediately regret staying up until 1 a.m. the night before because you were trying to get quiet, alone time without the kids. Ha! The joke is on you now!

Being a parent is the best and at the same time the most inconvenient title. Having a kid and raising a tiny human is by far my greatest accomplishment in life, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything! At the same time, without even realizing it, you have now chosen to give up everything else about yourself. You can no longer just walk out the door and go do whatever menial task you want, and now have to plan every move you make for the rest of your life. 

You want quiet time? Is that on your schedule? 

Date night? Not only are you paying at least $100 for dinner and drinks, let alone some other activity, but you now also need to pay a babysitter $20 an hour to put your kids in front of a TV while they watch TikTok from their phones.

So, how do you get yourself to not feel like life revolves around your kids?

Well, planning is how. Sure, you used to be carefree but even if you never have kids, you have to start planning your life when you become an adult. If you have any goals at all, you need a plan in order to achieve them.

For me, I can get overwhelmed very quickly if I don’t have a plan. I have also realized that I need to plan the night before or the morning of. At least the little things. If I try to make a big plan for the whole week with lots of details, I tend not to stick to it because it becomes too overwhelming with no room for flexibility. I need to have flexibility. I have three kids, and things can change rapidly around here. What works better for me is having a to-do list. I make a list of all the things I want to do, and then I can plan how and when I want to get them done based on the day, the weather, and who is around. 

The most important thing I have learned about scheduling is that you have to learn what works for you. I watched so many videos, tried so many schedules, and saw what was working for other people, but when it came to me, I had to take the things I liked from each idea and make it my own. I love paper and pen, but I find my digital calendar much more convenient. Google Calendar is my favorite tool! In addition, I love Trello because I can easily make lists and move the tabs around as needed. It keeps things so easy. *There is an app for your phone, too! 

While being tired is hard to get over, I know that moving my body rather than basking on the couch with a cozy blanket all day will get me way farther on my to-do list, and the guilt will be less when I cozy up tonight when the day is done! 

I hope this motivates you to find what works for you, stay positive, and know that no matter what level of tiredness you feel today, it won’t last forever!

You got his mama!