The time my daughter asked Alexa (yes, the home speaker) for juice...
The time my daughter asked Alexa (yes, the home speaker) for juice...
I remember it like it was yesterday (even though it was 3 years ago now).
I was a single mom, working 12-15 hour days… every day.
Each task seemed more important than the next and the guilt I felt seemed to mount higher and higher each day, like a pile of laundry that never gets put away.
She asked me for juice and I kept saying “in a minute”.
I was working on an urgent task.
Suddenly that minute turned into an hour and before I knew it, she was saying “Hey Alexa, can you get me some juice?”
My heart sank. I had so much going on with work, and a lot mentally consuming me that I couldn’t even pause to give her 30 seconds to open the fridge, hand her the juice and acknowledge her.
I was often thinking: What is wrong with me?
At that time it was hard to not let the guilt consume me, but that night I chose to go to God and share with him the shame I felt for not fitting into my day "more present time" with my daughter. I wanted to understand what was going on.
I was getting A LOT done, trying to do it all and it seemed to work sometimes until I realized I was missing out on what really mattered most.
It was hard to be present for her when I could hardly be present for myself.
I know you may have felt the same way at some point.
Being a parent, working full time, studying (even if it's an online course), managing housework, while trying to juggle it all…
It can feel overwhelming at times.
It can feel frustrating and like there’s not enough time and energy to be fully present for yourself or others the way you want.
But you don’t have to DO IT ALL and you don't have to overcome the challenges alone.
In fact, it doesn’t even have to take hours a day.
