What to do when you’re home sick

Being home sick with someone to take care of when all you want to do I curl up in a ball and get caught up on all that sleep you missed for the last 6 months, is right where I’m at. 

Which makes for a perfect segway into “doing your best, even when it’s only 5%”. 

Most people are very familiar with the idea of doing your best. The part I feel that often gets forgotten is sometimes your personal best isn’t going to be 100%. 

By removing this idea that to do our best we need to give 100% or more to any given situation we can remove and guilt or shame that occurs when we “don’t give it our all”. Being gentle with yourself (especially during times of illness or high stress) can give yourself the permission that you might not normally give yourself to take a step back and re-evaluate. 

Okay maybe I’ve lost you a little, here’s an example. Yesterday my son stayed in his pj’s for most of the day, and he played a lot independently. Thankfully I have a human who can do this. I gave maybe 15%, which was the best I could do without comprising what I needed to do to rest and recover. I did get a load of laundry half started, and the best I could do was start it and now it’s sour and needs to be switched over. I made the choice that, I didn’t have the energy to switch it over. Which is gross but I’m human and it happens.  Doing my best meant getting plenty of liquids, keeping my kiddo fed and clean, and resting my physical body. Laundry was a bonus percent that wasn’t worth it yesterday. By highlighting all the most important parts of my day I still have that feeling of accomplishment, and dropped that shame or guilt like a bag of hot potatoes. 

There are other days where your version of giving it your best comes in the form of accomplishing everything on your 64 item to do list. On these type of days we can celebrate because we accomplished everything we wanted. And that’s awesome! I’m happy for you on those days! 

If you’ve followed me this far, you’re doing great. I’m trying to give you a little more space for you to own some of your own energy and space. Some days you will take it all on without much to worry about and other days you will lay in bed and do the best job you can about it. 

The world shames parents enough as it is, no need for you to add to it yourself.