What do you do when your overwhelmed?

[surreymum89]

I am a "stay at home" mum so feel a bit silly being overwhelmed with what essentially is my job of looking after kids and house with no outside job responsibilities to add pressure on me , but I am feeling very overwhelmed with everything.

I have a young baby, toddler and teenager, I just can't seem to get through all the tasks, I feel like I have a never ending list where most of the tasks renew each day and the list is being constantly added to and feel like I'm also struggling to meet the needs of 3 children in very different stages of development.

Any tips on how you order your thoughts/ get on top of things when your feeling overwhelmed? I know I spend a lot of time just stressing and wasting time because I just don't know where to start sometimes.

(First world problems really I know , once upon a time I used to be laid back !)

Mine are older now but when I had younger kids I had an aha moment when I realised I was just piling pressure on myself. Is it possible that you have unrealistic standards?

I use a to do list that splits thing into admin, errands and chores. I have a set time in the week when I look at admin, including any calls I need to make. Chores are kept to the essentials and errands are tied in with other times I am going out.

For household chores I find short chunks of time helpful. Set a timer for 15 minutes and focus on one room or one task. Stop at 15 minutes whether you’ve finished or not then restart when you have another 15 minutes spare. I also found it helpful to put laundry on at night so it can be hung/dried in the morning while kids are having breakfast.

It is pretty overwhelming having small kids so don’t beat yourself up.

@PhoboPhobia thanks! Timer tip is good will try that and yes may be some truth in the unrealistic standards to a degree, I think I put off jobs because I want to do them perfectly (think organise toys in labelled boxes and line books up in size order) so I don't start because it seems a mammoth task or I waste time planning it all, when in reality I could have tidied to a good enough standard in 15 mins.

It’s all about your expectations on yourself most of the time.
So many of those jobs can just be missed out and Boone except you will notice!
Then you realise that many people do miss them out anyway but you just don’t know that!
Can you tell us more about the jobs that are making you feel ovewhelmed