I heard somewhere that a housewife works the equivalent of two full time jobs. This fact stuck in my head because I often encounter "career" women who feel I must be bored or have no ambition. Now ponder this, if being a house wife counts as two jobs then deciding to Home school adds so much more...teacher, principle, administrator, field trip coordinator, on and on it goes.

It's no wonder that when I did a search on Home school burn out the list was miles long! Now, we all know what a got it all together gal I am... So, this is not about me, but for your sake I thought we'd take a moment to look into home school burn out.

Burn Out Symptoms

Henry Neils President of Assessment.com
describes burn out as:

1. Chronic fatigue - exhaustion, tiredness, a sense of being
physically run down
2. Anger at those making demands
3. Self-criticism for putting up with the demands
4. Cynicism, negativity, and irritability
5. A sense of being besieged
6. Exploding easily at seemingly inconsequential things
7. Frequent headaches and gastrointestinal disturbances
8. Weight loss or gain
9. Sleeplessness and depression
10. Shortness of breath
11. Suspiciousness
12. Feelings of helplessness
13. Increased degree of risk taking

As a result of this list I have officially asked Mr. Neils to remove the hidden camera's from my home. I would also like to add that all the articles written by women also listed Crying Easily. Duh...

Now, there are as many causes of burn out as symptoms. Some are completely out of your control. Things like moving, illness, etc. Then there are the controllable causes of stress. Let's face it these are the only things we can do something about! So, let's address them.

My list of causes for stress often looks something like this:

Spouse
kids
pets
house work
home school group responsibilities
church responsibilities

However, this is incredibly flawed thinking. If I truthfully want to come to the bottom of my stress most of the time I need to go no farther than the bathroom mirror. How I respond to things is controllable. I can't control everything in my life but I can control how I respond to them. So, what can I do?

Oh dear we're supposed to be talking about you aren't we....

OK, here is a list of suggestions you can use to help reduce your stress, as we all know I don't stress...

1. Train your kids- Kids disobey it's a fact of life, but if you take
the time to be consistent in training your kids it'll pay off in the
long run. This greatly reduces stress.

2. Delegate- a family is not a one woman show.

3. Make Time For Yourself- If you fall apart you are of no use
to your family

4. Get Support- Gee... I don't know may be you could join
a support group like hmmm.... I don't know ... may be
CAHE. OK I admit that is just a shameless plug for my group.

5. Worry- Give those worries to the Lord let Him handle them.
I once heard a great speaker talk about what she called
"alter burn". That is the phrase she used for when you hand
a problem over to the Lord to handle and then yank it back
and continue to worry about it. Do you trust God? Do you
want to alter burn your Family?

6. Lower Your Expectations- Your not perfect, you never will
be, get over it.

7. Be Flexible- I don't care how much it cost or how much time
you took to plan it... if it don't work ... dump it!
And try some thing different.

8. Teach Your Kids to Work Independently- If your kids are
old enough you should not have to sit none stop and tell them
what to do next in every subject.

9. Vary Your Activities- If your simply in a rut then change
things up, do something different.

10. Limit Your Activities- Many families have something
or multiple things to go to each and every day. If you
are that family and your burnt out.....well no wonder
your stressed.

11. Take A Day Off- Your a home schooler!
You control the schedule!


12. Remember Why You Started Home Schooling-
I found this quote that sums this up for me. "You have
to have been on fire at one time in order to burn out!"
~Holly Richardson

When Bran was little Cec used to sing a song to him when he was trying to break him from sleeping in our bed. It was a remake of Ten Little Monkeys Jumping On The Bed. Cec would say, " Daddy called the Dr. and the Dr. said NO More Brandons in Momma's bed!"





Yes, we are those parents that forever have their children in their bed. Last night as things were winding down I laid in bed with a book. Cec was trying to doze off. Sure enough here came little Em with a book. She crawled up the middle of the bed and took up her normal space between us. She opened her book up and took up "reading" it. Dicovering that he was the only family member not in our room, Bran drags in his blankets and pillows to take up his post on the floor at the foot of the bed. (He has long since outgrown fitting in the bed with us.)



When my eyes got heavy I flipped off the bedside lamp and laid my book on the table. Em smiled up at me and laid her book down too. I thought to myself may be there is a bit of me in there after all. I had often wondered if she wasn't her Dad through and through. She snuggled in closer to my side and almost the very second I wrapped my arms around her dropped right off to sleep. As I laid there listening to my family's breathing take on the regular pattern of sleep I sent up a prayer of thanks for my many blessings.



Then I shoved my husband's dog off my back, kicked my dog off my legs, removed my daughters elbow from my ear and attempted to stake my self firmly to the mattress to insure I could keep my portion of the bed. Sometime during the night while stumbling to the rest room I'm almost sure I stepped on Bran's head. . .



Ahhhh... these are those precious moments you hope to always remember...