Im sure, i'm not the only one with the guilt of working during half term. Though I haven't felt like this in a while and after years of feeling like total shit for always missing school events, trips, meeting etc (and maybe it had little to do with my mental breakdown). Im thankful for the last few years, in which I've been available for EVERYTHING. Absolutely everything, to the point my kids were actually offended when dinner wasn't ready, upon arriving home.
That's when it hit me just how much id made myself available to them and completely forgot about myself. While compensating for the times I wasn't available.
Whoa! did the come to a stop. Once I decided what direction I wanted to work towards, I began weaning them off of mummy being available so much. This was no easy task, especially as I now had three demanding boys. Not the two i'd originally started with ( I say this, as if khariem had appeared from nowhere).
It can't just be my kids that feel weekends, evenings, holidays are some kind of eating marathon. As if its a competition to see, who can get through the food the quickest. Of course I try to prepare for these times but goodness me, going from
Breakfast
Lunch
Snack
Dinner.
To
Breakfast
Snack
Snack
Lunch
Snack
Tea
Snack
Dinner
Dessert
Oooh just something small!
And I say to myself every time I'm not gonna get sucked in, Its set meals. Then of course the time comes and sorry id rather have happy fed children. Rather than children moaning for food they can see but can't eat. Three kids later, LIFE IS TOO SHORT!
So my compromise is to buy more healthy bits than crap and if they're really hungry, they eat it. Having them help with the cooking, is also great. Not only do they love helping, they are learning about health cooking and eating from early. So it becomes part of their lifestyle now rather than something they need to change later in life.
Another area my boys felt the change is school and out of school activities. Im sure they loved me being more available to attend ALL school assembly, events etc Being available for football on the weekends also took a big hit. Obviously for the better but it doesn't feel like that at the time. In the very early stages of setting up ALJ LDN I did pretty much miss everything.
Now we have the compromise of having a talk about everything going on and if theres something they really want me to attend, I make every effort to be there. Little man obviously doesn't have that kind of understanding yet but thankfully he also doesn't actually know what happening in his life. LOL so he stands what I want!
