Apr 18

Apr 18 Midlife Can Be Hard, But I Promise You're Doing Great!

Sometimes midlife life looks like putting on some workout clothes first thing in the morning because it’s nice out and you definitely plan to go for a run with the dog as soon as you get done taking two kids to the dermatologist.

You shove a homemade chocolate chip cookie from last night into your mouth on the way out the door because there wasn’t much time for breakfast in the morning rush. Then, after the dermatologist and stopping at the lab for bloodwork before Accutane, you swing through the pharmacy to pick up a handful of prescriptions (except they aren’t ready). And on the way to school late with the kids, the interstate is closed because there’s an accident and traffic is being diverted so it takes at least an hour to finally get them to class.

Then on your way back home, the biggest kid calls from his dorm to tell you he is sick with the stomach flu and has never felt so sick in his life and might be dying. So, you swing through the grocery store for some Sprite and Pedialyte and an anti-emetic and cup-O-noodles and brave the still verrrrrry slow interstate traffic all the way back to his dorm because you MUST lay eyes on him and make sure he’s okay and not actually dying.

He looks pretty sick. So, you bring him home instead of leaving him in the dorm to wither away and as you drive back toward the verrrrry slow interstate, he weakly mentions that his car is parked illegally and almost surely has a parking ticket.

You are too tired (and he is too sick) to do anything about that at the moment. And by the time you get home with the sick kid and get him settled, you realize it’s already time to get the other kids from school. So, you wolf down a sandwich and hop back in the car where you are relieved to find the interstate has cleared.

On the way home, you field a thousand “Hey, moms” and quiet the bickering over how to correctly pronounce pina colada. At home, you tell the kids you need to lay down for a minute to ‘rest your eyes’ before soccer practice then you immediately fall asleep until the middle schooler needs some help simplifying radicals.

Sigh.

I know. Midlife can be…a lot.

And OF COURSE, you always intend to exercise and make something healthy-ish for dinner and switch the laundry and respond to those work emails and clean up the kitchen counters and make time for self-care and basically be a productive and functioning person. But then, all too often, life gets in the way.

And instead, you wear workout clothes while spending four hours in the car driving here and there and taking care of kids and getting them to appointments and serving macaroni and cheese and wracking your brain trying to remember how in the world to simplify radicals.