I’ve found that running with friends is less expensive than therapy. Having a whole hour to vent while your friends puffs along beside you nodding because she’s too out of breath to form complete sentences in response to you is a beautiful thing.
Last week I was weirdly off my game for no reason. Could have been the end of a long summer in Arizona was getting to me, could have been hormonally induced pity party thanks to an abnormally bad period, could have been the stress of moving my boys to a new school was finally taking its toll on me, it might have just been a while and it was my turn. Whatever the case may be I had 48 hours of “Nicole sucks” time.
My lucky friend Dara had the good fortune to run with me while I prattled on about what a loser I was for about a good 20 minutes. And just when her ears started to bleed she interrupted me and said that if she heard another woman talking about me the way I was talking about myself she’d kick that gals a**.
Huh. Never thought about it that way.
But we do it all the time, don’t we? As working mothers we constantly feel like we are doing too much and not enough just about every moment of the day. If we focus too much on work then feel like we are short-changing our family. If we take leave work early to take our kids to soccer or dance we feel like we are shirking our duties at the office. If we make time for friends then we worry we might be taking away from alone time with our partners. Throw in travel, car trouble, spousal discord, sickness, or any number of “little things” that can throw our precarious balancing act right into chaos and craziness and it makes you just want to stay in bed some days!
But as hard as it gets we need to never forget to tell ourselves that we are doing the best we can and that is good enough. Because it has to be. Because instead of being our worst critics – which get us no where – we have to become our own biggest cheerleaders. This juggling act is ridiculously hard so you need every person in your corner – including and most importantly, YOURSELF!
So the next time you hear that bitchy voice in the back of your mind telling you what a disaster you are. Just throw her a mental left hook and go for a run!
If you like my blog you’ll love my book. Buy The Working Mommy’s Manual on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Working-Mommys-Manual-Nicole-Corning/dp/0615637418/ref=cm_sw_em_r_dp_6ZRcqb0QFT7P8_tt
 |
For laughter and inspiration read my book The Working Mommy's Manual, available on Amazon.
Buy Online Now!