Four Squared Motherhood

I informed my husband that this next period of time SAHM no longer stands for stay at home but stressed at home mom(or SAHP/stressed at home parent). I was joking but I know that many moms (and dads) are stressed and not sure what to do, whether it be finding childcare or just being at home with their kids all day. This whole time is stressful and scary, throw in a panic to meet children’s educational needs from many people who are unqualified (or feel unqualified) and it is chaos. I want you to take a deep breath. It will be okay.

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There has been a lot of “I cannot teach my kids,” “I cannot stay at home all day with my children,” “they are going to drive me crazy,” I do not want to be stuck at home with them that long” and other thoughts along those lines. All children hear in this madness is mom or dad do not want to be at home with them or spend time with them because they do not like it. I know it is hard but we all need a shift in perspective. These kids do not have a choice either. Yes they will be just as stir crazy, will probably be jerks at some point and there will be fights. What these kids need to hear is “we are going to have so much fun,” “we are going to get through this together,” “I cannot wait to spend all this time together learning about each other” and “we can watch so many movies!!”

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You do not need to have a schedule, you do not need to have a stack of worksheets and you do not need to know what you are doing! Learning happens in many different ways whether it is just reading a book or watching how a bath bomb reacts to water at bath time. At this point learning does not even need to happen! It is chaos out there, if you need to watch movies all day to keep the stress at bay or you kick the kids out into the backyard for an hour so they can scream, yell and burn energy, good for you for keeping your humans alive.

This time is for loving on each other and keeping as safe as possible. Get that quality time in, catch up on your favourite shows, start a hobby you have been interested in, get those chain emails going and keep your family healthy. Let your kids know you want to spend this time with them and they are not a burden during this time. These kids are going to remember that they spent two weeks, three weeks or maybe even four months spending time with their family, binging shows and they will not even realise they have missed out on anything. This St Patrick’s day I am so lucky to be Mom, I am so lucky to be at home with my kids, not worrying about them in the hospital alone because they got sick and visitors are banned and I am so lucky that we live in an age of technology where we can still contact family, we can still access tv/movies and it is still safe to be in the backyard.

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