I typed up this example of one of the reasons why I struggle to care for myself on a daily basis for my bud and figured I would put it here for posterity.
Like here’s what happens: kid #1 asks for eggs at 7:45 PM last night. We say last bedtime snacks before 8 PM. I was eating a very late dinner after not eating anything for half a day. Not anyone’s fault but my own ED I guess but I struggle with it. Anyway I cleaned up kid #1’s messes from eating a bunch of dilly bars that she peeled all the coating off of and replaced with huge puddles of Hershey’s syrup like multiple times. But she feels hunger and boredom at level 11 starvation panic even though she eats all day long.
So she’s freaking out and I’m like, “No, I will not make you scrambled eggs because I am eating my dinner.” She’s like, “I haven’t eaten all day,” screaming, freaking out. I’m like “You have been eating all day and I have to feed myself. Sorry.” So we say eggs in the morning.
This morning I get up and spouse is bustling around getting ready to leave for a week-long work trip so I have to wait for the bathroom and stuff. Takes a while. I make a cup of home coffee, which I haven’t done in a while. But kid #1’s hounding me about the eggs and kid #2 is hounding me for a turn with the computer.
So I say “OKAY I HAVE TO DRINK MY COFFEE, we are setting a timer.” 20 minutes for me to finish coffee and computer. Then I will make kid #1 eggs and kid #2 can use the computer. So my timer goes off and kid #2 is immediately at my shoulder harrying me as I lock up my profile. But she is also trying to hand me hot dogs, wanting hot dogs. My phone is screaming with the alarm I have set for midmorning reminding me to eat something because that’s one of the ways I manage to do it. Kid #1 and kid #2 both get in the kitchen whining while I am getting the egg pan washed, etc. Kid #1’s wanting to help by taking all the eggs out of the carton and putting them rolling around on the counter where they will roll off and crack. Kid #2 is talking about ???? plus hot dogs.
So I’m like “Okay, everyone out please.” Kid #2 is wanting to help make the eggs and I would like her to, but have to say no because kid #1 will only eat scrambled eggs if the chunks are SPECIFIC SHAPES. So I have to say no but I explain why.
While I am getting frozen bread out of the freezer and discovering that someone fucked up my loaf of specialty bread that I got for myself as a treat and they left it fucked up inside the breadbox 6___9 auuughhh ED trigger shit.
So I get the toast going while the pan is gently heating. I get the eggs cracked in a bowl but it’s too small because I haven’t done the dishes in 4 days because I’ve been pushing myself too hard doing everything else that needed to be done and am now in a PEM flare. Kid #2 wants to help scramble so I let her do that and pour the eggs in the pan. I overcook the eggs slightly which means for me they have a terrible texture and because a medication I started recently has given me awful farts that smell like eggs. So I don’t really want to eat them. Chug the eggs anyway because I have to eat something and the eggs are expensive and rare.
Make my toast. Sit down to eat my toast and sip the last of my coffee. Kid #2 reminds me she wants hot dogs.
This is how my day ends up getting eaten up by kid care and crisis mitigation and I don’t get time to take care of myself. I just roll from one minor crisis to another for my disabled family. This is how primary caregivers struggle to find time for themselves and why I just end up pushing myself until I crash and can’t do anymore. Because like, when your kid is absolutely losing their shit suffering because they can’t have scrambled eggs or hot dogs or go to a store or whatever RIGHT NOW they feel like they are dying. Like of course I want to always choose doing what I can to help my kid avoid getting dysregulated and despairing. But then I end up burned out. Like I have been for like. Two years.
So I am having to be really purposeful about setting timers and small boundaries with kids and spouse so I can eat, shit, shower, go to the doctor, and do hobbies that keep me from wanting to die. But it’s really hard, and my family hates it because I have been co-regulating with them as much as I humanly can then flip out in the middle of the night hating my disabled trans life because I wasn’t living as my self. I have been living as a tool - a tool for my family, a tool for people to enjoy hating, a tool for the world to use.
I am tired of offering my body as an apology - offering my service as a stand-in for my value. I love to take care of people. I am my own person and don’t feel a lack of like, internal content, but I also love holding myself open for people to deposit like. Special interest dumps and Big Feelings and complex thoughts and stuff. It feels good. I like to offer care and kindness to people because I think it’s the right thing to do and it feels good. I want to be a mom, I want to be a wife, I always have wanted those things.
It is so tricky to be needing to heal from caregiving burnout while still needing and wanting to give care. My best friends know this stuff about me too and hesitate to ask me for help or support sometimes and honestly, heartbreaking because I love my friends so much and want to be there for them. I WANT to give people what they need and want. I want to connect with people through offering to collaborate with them on what they need. I am not viewing it as a gift from me; it is us connecting together. I don’t want my friends to feel like they’re adding to my burnout because they are not. I don’t want my family to feel like they are contributing to it because it’s not their fault that we are in the situation we are in, and I love them deeply.
I am not sure how to thread the needle of communicating to people that yes, time and energy are my most precious personal resources, but I choose to share them because I love people and because it makes my life good and in my biggest hopes, it makes life for other people good, too.