The oxygen mask philosophy

Ms Mamacita, , , , ,

Within my group of mama friends, this term has become so common that as soon as any one of us starts to email things like “overwhelmed, tired, moody”…we all reply “oxygen mask!”

We all get burned out from time to time: periods of illness, or work/money stress, or just those busy periods where you are out all day and things seem to be going at wharp speed and you wish the day had more hours or you had a third arm (I’ve wished for the third arm many-a-time!).

Have you ever noticed that the kids start to get all weird? And your relationship starts to get all weird? It’s time to sort it out. Time to put on your oxygen mask, just like on a  plane where they ask you to help yourself first so you can help your family.

‘Cos when we are rested, happy and energetic, we can deal with anything. And usually just the fact of being well radiates out to the other members of the clan, and things seem to adjust and get better by osmosis.

When you know it’s time to put the oxygen mask on, you might need to do some or all of the following:

Get to bed EARLY. I mean with the kids if possible. At least twice. (BTW I find this one really hard because I feel I don’t get any down time, but actually it’s THE most important one…just be strict, it’s only a couple of days: emails, books and even blogs can wait)

Eat well, no skipping meals. BUT, in oxygen zone you need to keep it simple, it’s not the time to be trying out those new recipes. Prepared food is fine in oxygen zone, order pizza, just eat some fruit after for vitamins. Or take a vitamin pill.

FORGET all non-essential duties for a day or a few days until you feel recuperated. When you are in dire need, really all that is important is feeling well again. FULL STOP.

So, let the kids watch TV, play video games, whatever it takes to get that space. Pick battles. Just take a few days out from the norm to use minimum energy. Call in favours: family and friends are happy to help. Pay anyone you can afford: cleaners, babysitters.

Let the house get feral. When you have energy again, you will clean it up. Unless you can afford a cleaner, in which case go for that!

So there you have it, the OMP in a nutshell.

When’s the last time you needed it?

(oops, forgot to say thanks to ANJA who first suggested this technique to me, and shout out to How to ruin a toddlers day: here’s the full explanation!)

The oxygen mask philosophy

18 thoughts on “The oxygen mask philosophy”

  3. We’ve all been there and survived. Me: doing down-dog in my room, one child trying to climb on my back, another rolling on my exercise ball and bang, knocks the third child into me. We call that a 4-Harsham pile up, but hello… Is this relaxing? Couldn’t they just go and read, watch TV, wash the cars, water the garden or pick their noses? Please?

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    1. I KNOW! I think I have inadvertantly trained mine to be totally dependant on me…i played with them way too much (only joking, surely that was a good thing!). Ach, it’s summer, we just need loads of patience…so if you see some, send it my way!

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    1. Boom boom!
      If I had a euro for every time I’ve applied this technique….really works though, amazing how a but of sleep and rest can make you see it all positive again!

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  6. Valerie says:

    Thank you fpr coming by my blog yesterday. 🙂 I appreciated your take on breastfeeding in public. 🙂
    This post is brilliant! I love your suggestions. Off to share it on FB….

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  7. Valerie says:

    Thanks, I just found yours and love what I’m seeing!
    Hmm, you seem to already have a FB share button here (lol – I have only been doing FB for a little over a month and still forget I can share from a person’s page…I always take the link and do it myself on my timeline! Oops) Are you on FB? I’d love to interact with you on there too. 🙂

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