Even as a small child I can remember having a case of the Mondays. Actually, it would start creeping in on Sunday – the realization that the weekend would soon be over and then back to the reality of 5 days of school, homework, chores and an early bedtime.
In my young adult life, I noticed I often felt the same way. The glorious weekend lazing about with friends shortly coming to an end and having to wake up early and endure a full work week ahead, I called it the “Sunday anxieties”. Now that I’m a mom I’ve come to terms that Monday will always come (if we are lucky) and the weekend will never, ever last forever, I have implemented some strategies to take the bitter sting out of Mondays…The key lies in preparation.
- Look at your calendar – Starting on Saturday I begin planning out the week ahead and making sure I have all my bases covered for kids activities and babysitters or help of any kind. Many times I think I have put events or obligations in my calendar only to find out it was literally just a thought and never actually made it in there. I take that time to make sure I have everything scheduled including babysitters for the upcoming week if I need one.
- Meal Planning – I’m a huge fan of saving time and eating leftovers so I try to come up with a meal plan for the week. I typically cook on Monday and make enough to cover us for Tuesday. I cook again on Wednesday and we eat spruced up leftovers on Thursday. Fridays are usually up in the air for a family restaurant night, date night or take out. Obviously, everyone is different and some people love to cook every night or not at all.
- Outfits – I try to get us at least through Wednesday with planned outfits. Luckily, my son’s school is casual and my toddler actually changes when he gets there into a training diaper and a shirt.
- Bills and Responsibilities – I have started opening my mail on Sunday (or any other day besides Monday). I realized, for years I would enjoy Sunday and push those responsibilities to Monday and then stress with the bills I had to pay and letters I had to open. Totally unnecessary.
- Monday Motivation – Lastly, find a kic-a$$ song to be your family Monday song and blast it on the way to school. Create a family mantra, like “We are conquering this week and taking no prisoners!” and enjoy, as we all well know, hump day comes faster than we imagine and then it’s Friday again and we repeat this weekly emotional roller coaster, over and over and over again!