Mummy Burnout

Having kids have opened me up to emotions I didn’t know I had and experiences I could never imagine. Unfortunately for me, it seems Mummy Burnout is the predominant one.

What is Mummy Burnout?

I don’t know if this is a real expression but after many nights googling “tired all the time” and “how to stop shouting”, it seems to be a thing. Symptoms include:

1. Rolling your eyes at EVERYTHING your child does. When my son farts, I see the ceiling.
2. Overreacting. If they spill some water on a normal day, it’s all “don’t worry sweetie, let me just a grab a tea towel.” If it’s on Mummy Burnout it’s more like “what the actual hell is wrong with you?!”
3. Looking like crap. I looked in the mirror today and saw hair that was both greasy and frizzy (!), red rimmed eyes that were glazed from tears, pale skin and chubby cheeks. No exaggeration. If anything, that’s me being kind. I was a freaking mess.
4. Shouting that starts off at the standard level and then transcends into a prolonged shriek.
5. Excessive sleep. On a bad day, I need a 20 minute cat nap in the afternoon and STILL go to bed early.

Mummy Burnout is feeling like an irritable zombie all day, desperately waiting until you can have some time to yourself to recover and then being too drained to do anything you want to do.

These are my usual evening plans:

Do some work. Do some crafting. Have a well-earned drink with a healthy snack and a good book. Go to bed at 10:30 feeling happy and calm.

This is my actual evening:

Dick about on Rightmove and Indeed for an hour, resenting the fact I cannot have either a beautiful house or the job I went to university to do. Get craft stuff out, realise I’m missing a specific item and put it back angrily. Have a well-needed drink. Eat tonnes of pizza followed by inordinate amounts of chocolate. Binge Netflix. Fall into a cheese-induced coma at around 9pm.

The worst thing about all of this, I don’t know how to get out of this rut. Everyday is ruined by feelings of resent, worthlessness and avid daydreams of how I can get my life back on track to then have it ruined by thoughts of childcare, school holidays and lack of time.

I literally sat on the trampoline the other evening crying “I need help.” Lord know what my neighbours must think, it’s a bloody miracle I haven’t had any “visits” at my door.

So, my question is, am I the only one who feels like this? And how do you get out of a Mummy Burnout?