Here are my two cents, take them or leave them like the pennies at the checkout counter.
Let GO. For real. Do LESS. Waaaay less.
My spirited is in first grade and this year boy is it something. All the magic plus more awareness, it’s a beautiful thing.
It’s also A LOT. She wakes up earlier to find the elf, she’s constantly negotiating for candy canes, Kringle, and cakes, the house is a mess of boxes that she’s turned into a robot/a tea shop/Mr Fox’s house.
There are fairy lights every where and not in a neat line, but flung every which way in a merry and chaotic way.
Then the cards start arriving. My beautiful friends with their professional photos and matching outfits and it’s easy to feel like a failure.
Let that GO.
We baked cookies the other day, and having never made roll out/cut out cookies before, my stress level was HIGH. But guess what? They were fine! Pretty? Not quite. But still delicious.
And my second lesson was learned- DO LESS. I thought we needed to decorate ALL the cookies we baked. NOPE.
Kidlette wanted to decorate two of them. And decorated TF outta them. She much frosting and sprinkles. And then she was ready to do something else.
I almost instinctively was like “THAT IS TOO KUCH FROSTING FOR ONE COOKIE!” But eh. Then muscle memory kicked in with “NO! We have to finish! We must do them ALLLLLL” but no! Turns out you can have two intensely decorated cookies and a bunch of plain ones and life continues.
I wanted to see the tree lighting downtown, kidlette was sick, we stayed home, the holidays continue. It wasn’t t a big deal.
Last night was a holiday stroll, she really wanted to go. I had in my mind expectations of decorating ourselves and packing food and we ended up with glow-sticks, pbj, and hot chocolate in to go mugs. It was lovely. It was more that enough.
There is SO MUCH PRESSURE put on us (and a lot is self-imposed), to do all the things at a Pinterest level.
But trust me when I tell you, you can unsubscribe to that.
Especially those with under 6s. (Mine is now seven). Just take it easy. The tree will be a mess, it’s fine. (Ours is outside, lol). They won’t sit through Nutcracker, it’s FINE to wait! There *will* be Nutcracker when they’re older.
It’s okay to NOT shell out hundreds of dollars for a train ride or to ice skate. It’s fine if you DON’T get a picture with Santa this year. Kids are sick, stay home and cozy!
There’s always been pressure on parents. But social media has increased it exponentially.
So learn from this messy millennial mom (if you want, or leave it, like I said): IT’S OKAY.
Be a little easier on yourself. It’s your holiday too. Don’t miss it because you think you have to do ALL THE THINGS.
You don’t. I promise.
Hydrate and moisturize, you are loved by me and others.
Pretty Good Ugly 