Hi! This is my first post. I have been coming here for a few years, looking through threads and have found lots of great advice reading the posts of others.
I feel really lost.
I have a quality in-home program, degree in early childhood education, etc etc. I just... don't feel like I am anything but a person who takes care of kids anymore. I know my work/life balance is messed up. My husband is supportive and amazing, we have young children of our own. I have everything I need. And I just feel so worn out all the time. It is hard that I can't "punch out" and the daycare just floods into my thoughts so frequently.
It is winter, and cold and flu season and I am sure that has something to do with it, right? I went out to shovel, just to leave the inside of the house. I do volunteer work, also am in other meet up groups. I do not feel connected to anything right now, just like this profession takes more and more out of me. Not too long ago I loved it, and love the kids. It feels like something I don't know how to describe. Like I am merely some mothery child martyr archetype or something- I don't know if that really describes it. I know this has to be a hump, right? I feel so @#$%ing isolated and overworked. I question if what I do is meaningful.
It takes a lot of energy to pull a smile across my face and be chipper to parents, although I still feel silly with the kids a lot, I don't feel happy very often. Is this just- what it is? I want to spend my life with children, and would prefer to not feel this way, however I do not know what I am doing wrong, or need to look at or do differently.
How have you gotten through a hump like this if you have been through it?