General News
20 January, 2026
A Mum's World: Staycation
My family has gone off to the beach without me and I’m just so relieved. I’ve had two of my adult daughters living back at home with us for the past month and it’s nearly finished me off. I made the decision to stay home and sacrifice my beach holiday for the sake of my own health and wellbeing. So far, it’s going great!
Knowing that all of our daughters still want to be with their Mum and Dad warms the cockles of my heart because they will always be our favourite humans to be around.
Being a Mum is a lot though, and sometimes it feels like too much.
When my three girls were little, I knew every toy’s name and location, each television show they had watched and every person they’d ever met.
There were health issues and hobbies, sibling rivalry and tricky situations, and I was totally up for it because I’m a one hundred percent or nothing kind of gal.
With a second of my three daughters now diagnosed with ADHD, the forever non-stop nature of my life and of their lives and of our life as a family is settling into a more comfortable clarity.
As adults, my daughters are successful graduates with beautiful friends, and I love them more than words can say.
My care for them is so complete though, that when a sore neck, strange freckle, abdominal pain or any other millennia of minor irritants is mentioned in my presence, I want to be able to make them feel better – and I cannot.
I simply don’t have the resources to send them off to the chiropractor, to the dermatologist and to a gastroenterologist for a consult once a week.
My gorgeous girls are just making an offhand comment about an annoying itch, and somehow I take it as an insult - it feels like a full-frontal attack on my ability to be a good mum who can smooth out all the lumps and bumps in their lives.
I know that this is a ‘me’ problem.
It’s my unrealistic expectation and not theirs – which is why I am taking a wee break.
They get the beach while I take a chill pill.
I just need a couple of days with no one asking me if I’ve had any thoughts about lunch, me feeling I need to applaud the person who rinses her plate and a clear run in my laundry system without having to fold someone else’s load first…yet again.
So, where to start on this staycation?
Cleaning like a maniac of course and then sitting back to enjoy it for hour upon hour upon hour upon hour.
Clear surfaces, empty sink, less clutter, more calm.
Then snoozing, swimming, thinking, praying, reading and more snoozing.
Me holding the remote control and me being totally in charge of the air conditioning system.
I thank God for putting the lonely into families, but even the lonely need to be alone sometimes to appreciate their family.