Trying days

Me and the kids have had a lovely few days together over the past few days. We’ve been for walks in the sunshine, we’ve baked, painted, made Easter crafts and it’s been really nice.

I’ve actually enjoyed Kory’s time off school with him but despite the sun shining again yesterday – yesterday was different. Yesterday had been a really trying day. What I mean when I say ‘trying day’ is a day when I’ve really had to try to make the effort to do anything.

I woke up in the morning feeling really tired (which is never a good start to the day when you’ve got a full day of entertaining and taking care of two children) and the kids woke full of energy as they always do, raring to start the day almost immediately where as I still didn’t feel like I was ready to face the day even after my first cup of coffee which usually does the trick to be honest. But not yesterday.

From waking up, all day the kids wanted me to play – which I did for a while until I felt like I couldn’t any longer. After a sleepless night the night before with Kora, I just felt so tired yesterday. She doesn’t usually wake but that night she woke more than a few times (possibly teething?) and it must have took it’s toll on me. That’s the thing about parenting – it doesn’t matter that you didn’t get any sleep the night before, it doesn’t matter how tired, sick or fed up we might feel, we still need to push through the day and be okay because who else is going to take care of our kids? Kory is at an age where he can entertain himself but yesterday for whatever reason he had no interest in playing by himself at all and had wanted and needed me for every simple task he had to do.

I’m not ashamed to admit I cried a few times yesterday. I had to find the energy, the patience and the perseverance to deal with Kora’s 1000th tantrum of the day and Kory’s millionth ‘will you play?’ from somewhere, something I felt I really didn’t have yesterday and something I felt I couldn’t find. I shouted more times than I’d like to admit but I’d honestly had enough of sitting on Kory’s bedroom floor and playing with his toys with him, I’d had enough of Kora whining over me not giving her the ‘correct’ cup to drink from and I’d had enough of breaking up their fights.

Despite feeling so crap, I still made an effort to play, I still baked some biscuits with Kory while Kora napped but it seems that still wasn’t enough. I was hoping that maybe after doing so – I could sit down and just have moment. Let’s all laugh at how naive I was… Wishful thinking – I know. They both still required my attention just as much and I just could not, I had nothing else to give.

Sick of playing referee to the kids bickering and tired of playing with toys, I made lots of suggestions of other things we could do.

‘Shall we draw?’ No.

‘Shall we play on the switch together?’ No.

‘Shall we go for a walk?’ No.

It seems that they just wanted to drive me crazy and bounce off the walls at home. I don’t know where their extra energy came from yesterday, I’m convinced that they sucked what little energy I did have directly from my soul which in turn fuelled their energy even more. Me feeling completely drained and them having even more energy than usual was a bad combination.

The day did not get any better until R came home from work and I was able to get me and Kory dressed and out of the house for a walk. Kory protested but I made him anyway. We both needed to get out and we both needed the fresh air. I was quiet on our walk but Kory enjoyed himself as he always does whenever we go on an adventure and going for a walk always seems to clear my head too. When we got back from our walk, I came back feeling a bit better and I could tell by Kory’s mood that he was feeling better too. It was Kory’s bedtime then, both Kory and Kora went straight to sleep and I was finally able to sit down. And breathe.

We all have and will have trying days but it’s how we get through them that matters. Getting through a day like yesterday for some people might be to count down the hours until the day is over, for others it might be to try and make the day better. On those days when nothing feels like it’s going right, just know that you have the power to change your day around. I guess what I’m trying to say by writing this post is that tomorrow is always a new day but why wait for tomorrow when you can turn your day around today.

Yesterday WAS a trying day but it didn’t end as one and I’ve woke up today feeling much better about everything as well.

I hope you’re all okay. If you are having a ‘trying day’ what makes your day feel better? Please let me know by leaving me a comment.

Thanks for reading.