Brilliant … But Bouncy

What Are You Taking a Break From, Exactly?

Thanks to a non-working thyroid, autoimmune condition and weight gain that’s causing my joints to fail, I am following a “liver cleanse” and “adrenal gland refresh” protocol this week.

After years of trying to figure out what to do, someone has finally written a book that outlines an actual, physical way to take care of my problem in a concrete way. So I am doing my best to follow those guidelines.

Besides eating ridiculous amounts of green, leafy vegetables and giving up dairy, gluten and sugar, there is one significant thing that must be avoided at all costs for these two weeks: STRESS.

So I announced to the kids on Sunday night that I am going to take a break from stress. For me, this meant that I would be backing off on acting like I “care,” even though I still do care. I would just not be able to remind them about things, and taking care of the routine things was going to suffer.

I told them that, like the book suggested, I would be going to bed at 9:00 p.m. The book wants me to stay in bed for 12 hours a day, but that’s just not possible.

Still, I don’t have to get up and make breakfasts and lunches for the kids. They are way old enough to do that themselves. So I planned to sleep until Shane woke me up in the morning to drive him to direct the morning show – which, for me, is an average of four extra hours in bed.

“I’m just taking a break,” I told them.

“What are you taking a break from, exactly?” Dylan asked. I think he expected me to say “parenting,” which is also not possible.

Dylan said, without flinching, “Good! A lot of people don’t know they should do that.”

Shane just said, “Okay. What do you need me to do?”

So this week, they’ve been making their own breakfasts and lunches. Bill has been in charge of dinners, although he wasn’t home two nights and that meant the kids were in charge of their own dinners, too. One night I had carrots and hummus for dinner. Yum.

The hardest thing, though, has been staying out of their business. I still have to check Dylan’s online grades every day, but he stepped right up. He got all of his missing work done for one class as soon as it popped up online. He got his homework done for two days in another class, and showed it to his teacher. She emailed me and said, “This has never happened before!”

Shane, too, has taken on his own things. I emailed his science teacher because Shane couldn’t find the homework assignment online, but that was hardly stressful.

In fact, the whole week has gone amazingly well. The only day that felt stressful was when I realized that the boys were planning to make macaroni and cheese again, and that they hadn’t eaten the leftovers from the prior two times they’d had mac-n-cheese in the past week. Rather than eat the leftovers, they decided not to eat mac-n-cheese at all. (They had frozen pizza and cereal instead.)

All in all, though, living stress-free has been pretty nice. Now, if only I could get the other drivers on the highway to cooperate.