overexerted
My head aches, I feel emotionally dull and lifeless, I’m cranky and mindlessly eating everything in sight. Sick? PMS? Hung over?
Nope, just tired. When I get really, really tired I go into shut-down mode. Non-essential things get the chop, like smalltalk and washing down the high chair after every meal. It becomes essential to wash down the baby eating radius only once a day, after most of it has dried out enough to be swept up with a broom. I also become rather obsessed with getting time to myself, and I start sneaking moments to read just a page of a book in between playing with the little people circus and walking up and down the stairs 540 times.
I need alone time like I need oxygen, water and food. I always test as an introvert in personality tests, and the one classic characteristic of introverts is that they need time by themselves to recharge and feel good. When I don’t get that time I start to feel angry when people make demands on me, even perfectly reasonable demands made in perfectly reasonable ways. It’s not a pretty picture when unreasonable demands are being made by a very tiny and demanding person who can only ask by screaming in my face.
I wonder what it would be like to be a stay-at-home mom in a country where we were treated like employees of the state, raising future citizens. Where we got a weekly salary, guaranteed time off and sick pay. Where we could have a union and go on strike (the library and garbage workers are out for 11 weeks now). It’s an intriguing idea, but I can’t imagine working out the logistics.
