I don’t have one of those memories that could recite stirring poetry or apt verses to inspire at a moment’s notice, just some eclectic sayings instead. Recently I retrofitted one from a fashion icon to help me find my calm as the season grows sillier.
“Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off,” Coco Chanel said - except I’ve applied this to our calendar, taking at least one thing off our plates each day.
It’s making this trudge to the end of the year a lot smoother.
From delegating a work meeting where I’m not needed, to accepting help for a school pickup or drop off, adding another school tuckshop order in the week, or buying some frozen pizzas to avoid labouring over another weeknight dinner.
The biggest breakthrough however has been pausing my exhausted five year old’s extra-curricular activities. She loves each one of them but didn’t have the vocab to tell me she had a bad case of end of year-itis and was truly hitting the wall.
Her irritable, tired behaviour screamed it to me though and I found my attitude quickly following hers. “You’re only as happy as your saddest child,” my mum says. Tragic and true.
I had vowed to never be one of these modern parents from cautionary tales who over commit their kids and ruin them for life. But this had crept up on me because they were activities my daughter was wanting to do. It only hit me when I found myself racing trying to keep up with her.
So that’s another new thing I’m testing out, getting in the car 20 minutes earlier to get to where I’m going. If I’m held up I’m hopefully still on time, but if I’m early I can grab a bonus coffee or rarer still, a slice of quiet time.
As printed in Village Voice