How do you get the stress out?

Tide

This weekend, I was feeling kinda stressed. I had a lot of work to do, Max had a cold and was getting whiny, and I’d had barely any time to myself all week long. So I made Dave take the kids out for lunch so I could have the house to myself.

Being alone in the house always calms me down. I light a candle, put on some jazz music or Springsteen, and just sit on the couch and stare into space. Literally, that’s typically all I do. Sometimes, I’ll have a cup of coffee, too. But the pure joy of having my own space during an otherwise hectic weekend usually totally rejuvenates me.

I don’t have any stats on this, but I think it’s safe to say that as moms of kids with special needs, we have twice as much stress as parents of typical kids do. Maybe three times as much. Maybe a billion times as much. I think it’s also typical for us to more constantly hover our kids, whether it’s to make sure their brains are stimulated as much as possible, to exercise their stiff limbs or do other therapeutic stuff with them, to entertain them when they’re not amused by the stuff other kids are doing, or to just make sure they’re safe.

But I feel no guilt about taking this time for myself. Having the house to myself for a couple of hours calms me down, and I know for sure that being calmer makes me a better mom.

This is also a whole lot healthier than downing a bag of Cheetos, I’d say.

What do you guys do to get the stress out?

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