My biggest struggle is that I crave either silence or deep conversations with adults, and with three boys, there's precious little of that in my life!
ROFL. +1000 - and I only have the one boy!
+2000 (I have two)
and there was this:
"I can't adult!" memes
I feel that way sometimes. After a full work day or work week, then the second shift.
The mental work thing - I think it's hard. Aside from my full time job (which is new to me right now, same company, different job), there's the home front. At work I have to wear many hats and keep track of 15-20 + projects.
At home, I do all of the grocery shopping, meal planning, most of the cooking, etc. - that's work! Brain work and physical work.
Plus I'm the co VP of fundraising for the PTA, and that's keeping track of book sales, raffle tickets, donations and thank you notes, jog a thons...and I simply cannot do more than one at a time, on top of everything else. These things overlap. I just can't do it, sorry.
Just this week, before bed, my son wanted a banana. I hadn't heard him, because I was relaxing on the couch for my 30 minutes a day. Then I joked later "I'm off duty after 8!" (What I mean is, off duty from kitchen duty after 8. Forage for yourself after that. I basically do kitchen stuff from 5:30 to 7:30 every night.) My husband said "I don't know why YOU get to check out for 30 minutes before bed every night when *I* don't get to go off duty." I was PISSED and he apologized, but it took all of my control to not say FUCK YOU.
Because I am asleep every night before my children. They stay up too late & WILL NOT FUCKING SLEEP (well, mostly the toddler because he naps at daycare). That 30 minutes is the ONLY time I get to "check out" ALL FREAKING DAY LONG. Otherwise I'm working, interacting with children, or doing chores. And even then it's loud and chaotic. My husband is awake for at least 1 to 1.5 hours every night after the kids go to sleep, so that's his time to relax. I don't get that. (He's also on travel right now, so I REALLY don't get that because it requires me to stay up 30 minutes to 60 minutes later.)
Plus it seems like just "more stuff" than in the old days. More appointments, more papers, more things to keep track of.