Things don’t always go to plan

Sometimes things don’t always go to plan and that’s okay. On Sunday it was Easter and I had lots of things planned for us to do, I had the day planned out exactly how I wanted it to go and I was ready for a fun filled day with my family. Except nothing turned out the way I imagined it would.

Every year on Easter we have our yearly Easter egg hunt at home and lots of other Easter traditions we usually follow. We had our Easter egg hunt on the morning of Easter Sunday as we always do, the kids were so excited to see that the Easter bunny had been and it was wonderful to see how happy they were finding all of their eggs that were hidden around the house. But everything else that followed that day all went a bit pear shaped after that…

We’ve all had a bit of a cold (just to clarify – not Covid! Tested negative) and it seems I was putting a lot of unnecessary pressure on myself for us to have the ‘perfect’ Easter despite feeling a bit sh!tty. After our Easter egg hunt, I’d usually make a start on the buffet we usually have for dinner, there’s usually lots of party food, cake and treats for the kids but I simply couldn’t find the motivation to make one this year so instead the kids just ended up having a lunchable to eat. After that we played some games and it was soon time for tea but instead of our usual Roast dinner I would normally make at Easter, I just ended up making the kids some frozen fish fingers and smileys faces for tea as I just felt I couldn’t be bothered going to all the effort of making a dinner when my head was banging.

At the end of the day when it was time for the kids to go to bed, I was kicking myself for only doing the bare minimum of what I had originally planned for the day until Kory turned and said to me ‘Haven’t me and Kora been really lucky today.’ And that’s when I realised that:

1.) My kids are amazing.

2.) That I did not need to hold myself to an unrealistic standard.

Since then I’ve had some time to reflect, things don’t always go to plan and that’s okay. I’m allowed to take a step back and cut myself some slack. And that’s what I’m here to tell you. Don’t be so hard on yourself. As parents, we already juggle enough without giving ourselves a hard time. We owe it to ourselves to stop comparing ourselves to others and what they may have/do and focus on our own lives.

It really did not matter that our day did not go exactly the way I planned. The kids had ate that much chocolate they weren’t arsed about the party food and Kory always complains about having to eat my roast dinners anyway. In fact, they probably preferred the fish fingers and smiley faces!

I guess what I’m trying to say is that sometimes we can only do what we can, we cannot pour from an empty cup, forgive yourself for being human, everything does not need to be accomplished all at once and sometimes when you think you’re failing, you might just actually be winning.

Things aren’t always going to go to plan and that’s okay.