To ask if you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed at the moment?

[Rainbowb]

I’m not trying to make myself sound popular at all but I have a genuine issue at the moment and I wondered if anyone else feels the same? Every time I pick up the phone there’s tons of messages on there and it’s really stressing me. I’ve got to the point where I dread looking at my phone. The school keep sending work and “ideas”’for stuff to do, my nursery colleagues keep WhatsApping more and more ideas of video recordings we can do for the children at home (it almost feels competitive), my neighbours who are isolating are constantly texting me shopping lists, then other school mums keep sharing pics of all the amazing ideas they’re doing with their kids. I understand that technically I can just switch my phone off but I feel I can’t, I feel I am obligated to engage with it all, after all they’re all lovely people but I’m so tired. I can’t get on top of home schooling or housework and I need a break from all the voices competing on my phone!! Is anyone else just wanting to run and hide?!

It's hard, so don't feel guilty. It's at times like this that you realise just how much "in demand" you are and how many different roles you juggle. It feels like there's nowhere to hide much of the time and it's difficult to switch off. I think your feelings are perfectly normal and I would expect many of us feel exactly the same.

You can start to manage it more by thinking do you really need to reply right now and asking e.g. for shopping lists weekly on a certain day. That helps a bit. or just checking it say once a day - getting them used to not getting a reply straight away.

or just ignore anything not essential

Thank you. I don’t feel like this in my normal life. It’s like this situation has created so much extra brain clutter!

Yep, defiantly. I've muted all the school chats and my work WhatsApp. I know when there are messages there but don't get the constant alerts.
Definitely feeling a bit of technology fatigue.

"Definitely"

My phone broke last week. The six days until a new one arrived was bliss!
I was still online, but I got to choose when and for how long, with no guilt. Somehow I never thought of just turning the damn thing off myself. It was only when it broke I realised what a relief it was.

YANBU. Disengage, look after yourself first OP

This was me yesterday. Customer demands, schooling demands, family demands, I felt like I hit a brick wall when it came to juggling everything and I just wanted to give up. I feel better today but I've shut my business for a few days so I can get some breathing space. Something had to give and that is always the case. Look after yourself op because no one else will .

Yes. I've got very little going on as I'm a SAHM and all volunteering stopped. I've had DH at home all day every day for nearly 10 weeks as he started WFM early. Plus the DCs. I'm used to quiet time in the house on school days and organising my life around that. I haven't had more than 45 mins in the house by myself in two months, and I feel the loss of meaningful external motivation. I've sort of hunkered down in a seamless string of 1980s Sundays with little to do, and any external input just seems to feel like abstract pressure and rub in the loss of real human contact (particularly with conversations that revolve around something other than Minecraft, nuclear war, Covid 19 and the economy) Zoom doesn't cut it.

DS1 has a list of SENs, DS2 is not the most enthusiatic writer either and DS1 isn't exactly a positive rolemodel in that department. I'm doing my own thing on the home schooling as we're struggling with the format of the work set by school.

One person is driving me round the bend as I see their suggestions in triplicate due to the DC's age gaps and being on the volunteer team. Not only is it tripple the stuff relevant to the organisation, it's all the spanmy random stuff which doesn't work for my DCs and I find I'm mentally blocking the good with the irrelevant spam. I don't have crafty children. We have no sense of time left. They just don't Zoom. I want the real world, not this shadow virtual world.

I worked out today I'm expected to do 32.5 hours of total work each day (16 hours childcare 6h schoolwork 7.5h work and 3h housework). Obviously am not doing all that but am utterly exhausted

YES. Really struggling atm. Working from home with a 1 year old which just isn't happening but is causing ALOT of stress plus I'm wanted back in but have no childcare so currently trying to sort not going back atm which is making me very anxious. OH works full time still and is stressing me out and not really helping with baby atm. Everything is stress atm, isolated, work, baby, marriage feel like I'm going to explode!!!!

Me. 32.5 hours a day sounds about right.

It's all just relentless. I woke up this morning and thought "brilliant it's Sunday" but it wasn't. It was another Tuesday.

I'm trying to consciously be on my own some of the time. Whether that's glorying in an hour or two of uninterrupted work (squashing the guilt that this probably means the kids are watching shit YouTube) or not engaging with bedtime because I've done everything else. So right now I've a couple of logs in the fire pit, doing a bit of MN and will then read my book on my kindle. But it's hard. I've got understanding work colleagues and I'm trying to be super grateful for what we have but the sense of stress and impending doom is still like a loud background hum that I can't ignore. It's like I know Richie Sunak has to be honest about things but I was a bit like "let me believe there will be an end and a positive rebound please!"

So, you're definitely not on your own. The loads we are carrying are heavy. And it doesn't matter how many posts I read about "being kind to myself" or how positive I try to be about "celebrating the good things" the load is still very heavy.

One step in front of the other.