The past few weeks have been crazy. A major part of March saw both my children being down with cold and fever which translated to plenty of sleepless nights and unfinished meals. While April was definitely better than March, it also saw the reopening of school for my daughter after a ten day break.

The first couple of weeks of the new academic year saw us struggling to get back to our morning routine after the previous month full of half-a-day school and study holidays and annual vacation. The mornings were becoming stressful, there were shouting and yelling too and plenty of naughty acts by the little one too. We seemed to be at least 4-5 minutes late to school everyday.

Then after a round of self-counselling, I started becoming a lot more calmer in the mornings and now for almost three weeks now, we have been reaching school well on time. My daughter and I have almost bid adieu to our morning stressful moments.

Forget about me-time, there is not even relaxing moments on most days. With my husband having a crazy, hectic schedule at work, the kids are fully only with me for most of the day and I can see the three of us getting on each other’s nerves every time the same naughty acts get repeated or the same little safety rule not being followed or the same refusal from me for telling a very lengthy bedtime story at the end of a crazy, tiring day.

Even as I refuse to play or tell a story or scold them for yet again leaving the tap open or forgetting to put the markers in their place, I also feel guilty – guilt at not being able to handle it all in a better way.

Recently, sitting at Kailash Parbat waiting for our food to be served, my topmost concern seemed to be to make sure that my naughty little one didn’t end up pushing or breaking the serveware. Despite being offered a nice, cozy seat and served tasty food in a restaurant with such a nice ambience, I just didn’t seem to be fully relaxed.

Maybe it is these crazy days or those physically tiring days or maybe the lack of intellectually stimulating activities or maybe that annoying worrying habit of mine which surfaces way too many times in a day when my child walks at the very edge of the platform or runs down the stairs all alone or refuses to eat a proper meal all through the day. It is time I started relaxing a bit more.