I don’t know about you but this Winter, I am having a much harder time making decisions than usual. I wrote the first blog post on decision fatigue January 2022. This was almost 2 years after the pandemic had started, forcing all of us to make tons of decisions using information from a rapidly changing landscape. I recommend checking that blog post first as it has some good tips about what decision fatigue is and how to manage it.
As our lives have seemingly gotten back to “normal”, things have slowly felt easier for a while. The reason I wanted to write this post today is to mainly remind everyone to give yourself grace. For months now, it feels like someone in our family has been sick (mainly the children), which has led to doctor visits, cancelled plans, and sleepless nights. Between work at home days with children in the background and sleep deprivation, I recently turned to my husband and told him I was done making decisions. He just looked at me and laughed. I think he had already stopped making decisions a while ago.
What decisions am I talking about? Things like, can I send them back to school with ibuprofen after the doctor said they are no longer contagious based on how long they had antibiotics on board but had a slight fever 12 hours prior? Can they go the birthday party with the cough if they have had it for over a week now? Do I wake up in the middle of the night to give albuterol if there is no wheezing or coughing but the doctor said to give it every 4 hours at the visit earlier in the day? The questions are endless…
I have worked hard to eliminate as many basic decisions as possibles. Menus are made ahead of time, clothes get picked the night before after lunch is packed, and schedule for the week is set Sunday night. Even with all that effort, decision fatigue still rears its ugly head, once again reminding me I am human and it is ok to not have all the answers and everything planned out all the time.
Just this once, I am not here to give advice or tips. I am hear to tell you that if you are going through something similar, that it is ok. That “this too shall pass”.
To all those tired parents, hang in there! Spring is just around the corner…
