I recently heard the phrase "Sunday night blues" tossed around on Instagram. Have you heard that? When I did, I was so relieved that I wasn’t the only one with these feelings! I was also impressed that there was a name for what I was going through most weeks.
Since having my second little baby, I’ve noticed that Sunday night blues have become a real thing in my world. Maybe that’s a little bit of postpartum talking, or maybe I’m just to the point in life where I really am a legitimate stay-at-home mom and Sunday nights hit hard after a typically busy weekend full of lots of people and activities. The realization that a new week is about to start all over again brings with it a little bit of sadness and angst.
Here goes the same thing all over again. My husband is going back to work, so I’m back on my own. Five days of hanging out with two little people starts tomorrow. Sunday Night Blues is when that sinking feeling of “hmm, the weekend is over, that sucks,” settles in and (in my case) can be a bit overwhelming.
However, I'm finding a few ways to combat this.
The first is to talk about it. I told my husband some of the feelings I was having one Sunday night, and I don’t think he had ever heard of such a thing and he was a little bit concerned for me after we talked. Again, this very easily could have been a bit of postpartum depression sneaking in, but I was really happy with his response when I started talking about it. Here comes another week, day after day, doing the same things over and over and over again. He helped me feel validated and really listened to some of my concerns. Best of all, he helped me with the second way I try to battle these blues.
What do I have to look forward to this week? What are my plans? I have found that when I write down my schedule for the week ahead, it helps me to see that every day isn’t the exact same and it gives me something to look forward to and be excited about instead of being mopey about the weekend being over. Having two very young children, I don’t do much. Therefore, my schedule is very minimal and often my planner is all but empty. But I still keep a planner!
I try to write something down for every day of the week. Monday for me is laundry day. So I write down “laundry” this way it isn’t a blank day on paper. I try not to plan anything else on Mondays because I often enjoy the peace (maybe?) that Monday brings. Yes, they suck. It sucks to get back into a groove, but it’s kind of nice to do nothing while I’m trying to get back into that groove. Anyway, for days where I don’t have appointments or play dates, I try to keep something on the to-do list or planner. Heck, my weekly television shows often make it onto my list of to-dos!
The third way I handle these blues is to make the most of my weekends. There’s nothing worse than the feeling on a Sunday night that the weekend was wasted. We have the occasional weekend when we do nothing, and often those are great and relaxing. But I’ve noticed my Sunday night blues are at a minimum after the weekends of the most productivity. Something about the company of my husband, while checking things off our list of to-dos, brings so much satisfaction! It’s almost as if a productive weekend gives me a clean slate for the week, without an unconscious pressure to finish the things I didn’t get to on Saturday.