The Blues Cure for Mom

Last Updated on June 22, 2018

It was winter, a blizzard raged outside, but inside the cozy home despair was raging inside the heart of this young mom.  My son was a newborn and he was crying without ceasing.  My normally sweet spirited three year old was crying and clinging to me throughout the morning.  I reached the end of myself, plopped down on the stairwell and there the three of us huddled in a symphony of wilted wailing.

I recall feeling like I was being swallowed up by the storm, wanting to crawl into my bed and never come out. Then, the reality that I was the grown up, not the little girl, snapped me to attention.  I gathered woolen coats and mittens, the car keys and trudged out into the blizzard to my pediatrician’s office.

What I received from my dear doctor was a diagnosis of colic for the baby, ear infection for my daughter and a case of some serious cabin fever for me.

Once all the medicines were retrieved from the pharmacy and we were back in our warm newly familiar surroundings I had to take stock on where I was as a mom.  We had just moved to a new town in the middle of winter where I knew no one and I was spending all my time alone.  I was overwhelmed daily with all that I had to do making our house a home.  I was unpacking boxes, caring for a baby with colic and helping my daughter adjust to sharing mom.

All these factors had led to me being a bit of a walking zombie, a miserable mother and wife who was barricading herself in her home because that was what was easiest.  But the very act of secluding myself was making matters worse.

If you are feeling miserable, take stock of your circumstances.  Are you feeling alone?  Hear me on this sweet mom friend – You are not alone!  There are moms the world over who at times are overwhelmed by the magnitude of their daily responsibilities.

What I can assure you, from eighteen years of being a mom is that the worst thing you can do is to continue to feel alone.  Alone is where the misery really is.  Stare alone in the face and spit in its eye.

Find a way to get out and be with people.  Go to the park, go to the library, the movies, a MOPS group, a restaurant play ground, a church offered Bible study and child care program or start a play group in your own home.

Isolation is the enemy of a contented momlife.  There is a reason you are drawn to the Internet to read blog posts – you are craving relationship.  As much as we love you to come visit and read, we are mindful that you need skin on skin, eye to eye contact with other moms.

Make it a priority to protect yourself from the mom blues and place a new kind of “time out” in your schedule.  Make the time and go to the trouble of getting you and your children out into the world as part of your routine!

Make sure you come back and tell us what you are doing for your “time out” with your kids!