Keep your cool when it's stinkin' hot!

They say it's been the hottest Australia Day in 30 years and I bloody believe 'em! God bless air conditioning...And with the end of school holidays within reach it's so easy to get overheated and lose it with your kids when you're so close to the finish line, especially when you're walking around like the sweaty family (mum sweaty, dad sweaty and a bunch of little sweety sweaties).
No matter how sweet or cute your kids are, when the weather gets hot every question sounds like a whinge and every request just too much to bear. I should know...Only yesterday at around 5.30pm after a day with 4 needy, sweaty girls I was suddenly hit with a bad case of IDGAS. What's IDGAS? It's when you're so damn hot and exhausted that the simplest question or request gets a response like: 'I Don't Give a Shit!' (IDGAS). And as it leaves your mouth you can feel yourself shrink back with self-loathing. (Thinking it is one thing but actually saying it feels entirely different).
Anyway, after a quick yet sincere apology I decided it was time we all chilled out in the local pool. Yes, it was 6pm. Yes, it would mean a late dinner. But hey, we'd be a happier bunch!

So, when we were warned about today's 40+ temp, I decided, no matter how hot and stinky it got, I'd keep my cool. So I put my IDGAS preventation plan in place:

(a) Loads of water - drinking it, swimming in it, putting feet into it!
(b) Hats, shade and air conditioning
(c) Rosewater face spray kept in handbag
(d) So NO to anything that's too hard or too hot

Worked today...tomorrow's a mild 37 degrees but will keep the survival strategy in place...Stay cool!
Lyndal
;0)

SuperMum is SuperDumb...results are in!

The proof is in...a SMH article by Sue White 'Multitasking taken to task', tells us 'neuroscience technologies have led scientists to conclude...while we may be able do one or two simple tasks simultaneously, we aren't wired to multi-task.'

It says multitasking is 'an inefficient way of using the brain' and 'tires out the mind and reduces your ability to be mindful.' Hello! Might be news to the rest of the world but modern mothers - caught in the work/life IMBALANCE have known this for ever. Add to the million and one jobs most mothers try to do in a day the fog of sleep deprivation and you have a melting pot of mindmash!
Just this morning, after a rough, sleepless night with a 7 year old's bad dreams and endless tossing in my bed, I found it difficult just to spread Vegemite on one slice of toast and peanut butter on the other. It wasn't till I sat down to eat with my cuppa that I realised they both landed on the same slice (not a great taste combo!)

The article recommends 'unitasking', doing just one task at a time, for a period of say 30 minutes, suggests using earplugs to avoid distraction. Such a suggestion would make any mothe laugh out loud. Personally, 30 minutes is an absolutely luxury of focus time in my house and only possible when my toddler's asleep and 7 year old's at school.
There's certainly some sense to the findings. I started advocating for greater 'brain balance' for mothers in 2006 when I ran my first Meditation for Mothers workshop. The amount of 'shit shuffling' mothers do in their everyday - washing, cleaning, cooking, working, negotiating, feeding, socialising, nit controlling, forward planning - it's little wonder we've little time and patience to gently nurture and love our children's needs.
I think we've been fed more than a few BIG FAT LIES about what it means to be a mother - to control everything our kids eat and do and wear and say and hear and watch and learn and practice - that we have no time left to enjoy BEING MUM.
If the experts want mothers to start unitasking I'm all for it! I just think they'll be in for a rude shock when they start seeing kids leaving the house in yesterday's clothes with unbrushed hair and unmatched socks.
And the best excuse to give the daycare or school staff when they glare at your new low standard? 'Yes, well I decided to UNITASK this morning.'