No doubt being a single mother has its challenges. Add an international pandemic, working remotely, and the kids home, well have fun with that. My biggest fear was getting COVID. I go down, my household goes down. I broke a rule and paid for it. My daughter went to a friend’s house and brought it home. I allowed her to see her friend and four days later, my entire household was sick

Luckily, it didn’t hit my daughters as hard as it hit me. I’m blessed to be here to write about it, but I couldn’t rest. I needed to rest. I wanted to rest. But as an SPM, my kids were sick and I had no one to call to take care of us. I was the someone. But what happens when the house doctor is sick?

Every morning I got up with the hopes of feeling better and wanting to login to work. I missed an entire week, but woke each morning to my alarm in the attempts of logging in. I tried to sanitize the house as much as I could, but the fatigue was relentless. Finally I talked to my BFF and she said two words, “Be sick.” I thought, “how?”

Three days into trying to play supermom, I heeded her obvious words and spent an entire day sleeping. I woke once for no more than an hour, then retreated back to bed. Although my body rested, I couldn’t shut off my mind. Worry set in. I had podcast episodes to record, I was missing work, my book relaunch push was this month, I had to finish my manuscript, and, and…

COVID was kicking my ass and I kept trying to go back to the grind. I didn’t want to take off work, even though I had hundreds of hours of PTO. My kids had minor symptoms compared to mine and had the ability to make and order food. And look, not only did my body need to recover, but my mind needed to rest. Taking care of myself was not selfish.

Sis, let’s talk. There are no rewards for a relentless grind. We are doing above and beyond on the job front, never mind bossing our households, parenting, home-schooling, all the while enduring a friggin’ pandemic. Let me tell y’all, cut it out. You need you more than anyone. Not the kids, not your job, but you. I hope it’s not COVID or any illness that slows you down, but if you don’t put your physical and mental health first, the grind will break you. Remember, you go down, your household goes down. Make your choice.