I was feeling guilty.
As you probably know, the end of the school year has all kinds of fun events and activities which means the schools need all kinds of help to execute things smoothly. In the past, I was able to volunteer a lot of my time. Even last year I was able to volunteer at the school for field day and the boys’ field trips. This year, my kids are at 2 different schools and it’s becoming too much to try to do both events for both kids.
There are only so many hours in the week. And I have to practice what I preach. So I have to pick and choose which things I am able to volunteer for.
I decided to skip the field trips, not only because being on a school bus for a field trip is a special kind of awful, but also because it meant that I’d likely have the time for field day at both schools.
I got myself all ready to break the tough news to the boys, thinking they would be upset that I wasn’t going to try to be at their field trips. Well, turns out I shouldn’t have felt guilty because they seemingly couldn’t have cared less!
While I didn’t lose sleep or beat myself up too much over this situation, I did waste too much energy on feeling guilty.
The moral of this story is that you shouldn’t allow yourself to feel too guilty about not doing all the things you might feel obligated to do or even that you wish you could do because it might not be as huge a deal as you think.
Guilt is like worry. All it does is take away today’s peace.
And let’s be honest, even if my boys were disappointed that I wasn’t going to be their chaperone at their field trips, they would have gotten over it.
If you’re feeling like you need a little guidance on how to navigate the guilt, let’s talk. A coach can help see the bigger picture when you are down in the trenches.