HOLLY WAINWRIGHT: '2021 wasn't meant to be like this. So give yourself a f**king break.'

Mate. It's alright.

No one is okay. 

No one's living their best life.

Watch: Things you never say in 2021. Post continues below.

No one's attitude is can-do. No one's heart is in it. 

No one's house is tidy. No one's kitchen is clean. 

No one's at the very top of their work game. Kicking goals. Smashing it. 

No one's sleeping like a baby (least of all, babies). 

No one’s kids are thriving. Being polite and considerate, good little members of society. 

No one's toddlers are putting their tantrums in their back pockets for an easier day.

No one's spouse is enjoying all the extra together-time.

No one's feeling grateful for all that time we got to spend out in the world. Travelling, eating, dancing, playing. No one's saying, 'weren't we lucky'.

Maybe your kids are spending way too much time on screens (what do I mean, maybe?) 

Maybe they don't yet understand why their world has shrunk so very quickly to include only you and your four walls. 

Maybe your kids are eating "too much" treat food, maybe they're not eating at all. 

Maybe they're lonely, maybe they're sinking further into addiction to their Likes and Follows. 

Maybe they're spending too much time alone. 

Maybe they're pushing the boundaries, breaking the rules. 

Maybe they're sick of the sight of you. And you them.

Listen to Holly Wainwright on Mamamia's parenting podcast, This Glorious Mess. Post continues below.

It wasn't supposed to be like this. 2021. 

It was meant to be the good year after a bad year. It was full of promise.

Of adventure and reunion. Of opportunities grasped. Moments seized. 

No one's seizing any moments now. 

We're just trying to get through them, one after one after one.

Parents worry. We worry that we're doing it wrong even when everything's right. 

Now, nothing's right and we know we are doing it wrong. 

We're twitchy, short-tempered. We're shouting more than we'd like. 

We're guilt-tinged and angsty. We're scared. 

We thought we were handing our kids a "better" world, but every day it becomes clearer that we're not. That actually, we're living through some era-defining insanity, and the rules no longer apply. 

And we're tired. We're really, really, really tired. 

Because we thought there was a finish line but we were wrong. 

Just another thing we were wrong about. 

It just... keeps going. 

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A post shared by Holly Wainwright (@wainwrightholly)

So. 

So what?

Give yourself a f**king break. 

That is my parenting mantra for 2021. And last year. And always. 

The reason this feels hard - homeschooling, not-homeschooling, teaching, baby-wrangling alone, the endless rounds of trying to entertain a child who's not, let's face it, their best self today - the reason that feels hard is because it is. 

It's impossibly hard.

If anyone - from Scott to Gladys to Dan to you - knew exactly how to get through this with a smile in place and a skip in your step, they would be a time-travelling unicorn from another dimension. 

I am not a time-travelling unicorn from another dimension. Nor are you. 

It wasn't supposed to be like this. 

Be shook. 

Be scared. 

Be worried. 

Let your kids be the same. 

And then do whatever you need to do to get through this next little bit of shitness - hour by hour, minute by minute, cake by cake. 

Hard things are hard. And there's nothing wrong with you.

Your kids will be okay. They're living through something enormous. And it will become part of their story. Just like it will become part of yours. 

So give yourself a f**king break. 

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

Feature Image: Instagram / @wainwrightholly.

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