Dear friend,
Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “The thing that you do is not good. You will surely wear away, both you, and this people that is with you; for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to perform it yourself alone.
I put my daughter to bed last week and then sat on the bathroom floor for twenty minutes doing nothing. Not crying, even. Just sitting. My husband found me and asked if I was okay and I said I was tired, which was true and also not the actual answer.
I keep thinking about how parenting burnout shows up in the small hours nobody sees. It is not the tantrums, usually. It is the fortieth request for a snack after you already said no thirty-nine times with a straight face. It is loving someone so much and still wanting, for one hour, to not be needed.
There is a moment in Exodus where Moses is worn out from carrying the people alone, and someone else has to point out that he cannot do it all himself. I think about that a lot. Not because it fixes the tired. Because even Moses needed a person to say the obvious thing out loud to him.
What does your body feel like by the end of most days lately?
A prayer
God, she is worn down in a way sleep alone will not fix. You know exactly how much she is carrying today. Meet her in the tired parts, and send someone to help carry it. Amen.