Just in case

This morning after walking Munchkin to the front doors of his school, I heard another mom at their van preparing to walk her kids in as well. The one phrase I heard her say “just in case” reminded me of all the preparations that go into getting kids off to school in the mornings. Making sure they are up in time, eat breakfast that’s not complete sugar, brush their teeth, dress in clothes appropriate to the day (sweatshirts in August seem strange to me) as well as having all the things they’d need for a good day at school. That’s a lot.

I tend to be a parent who prepares, sometimes too much. I recently took Little Miss to the ER due to some higher than typical temps and before we left the house, I was making sure of a plethora of things:

• Munchkin got his dinner
• I had enough snacks to get me through the unknown wait time at the ER
• Little Miss had things to entertain herself if needed
• Charging cords and battery backups for my phone since that’s a lifeline when away from family
• Something for me to do while we waited
• that Mister was aware of the situation (since he was somewhere he needed to be)
• I also was trying to eat something because in the rushing around and worry my blood sugar had started to drop

I was thankful then, and still am, that my in-laws live so close to us now that they were able to adjust their plans for the evening and help us get to the ER while Oma stayed home with Munchkin. Even then I was trying to plan for things again, “just in case” since it was a school night and all that fun.

Being a diabetic adds a fun level of prep when going anywhere. I try my hardest to be prepared for almost anything. I like to make sure I have snacks to treat any lows I might get while out. I also try to keep at least one extra set of insulin pump supplies in my purse “just in case” something goes wrong with the current set I am using. That’s probably why my purses tend to lean towards the larger sized bags and not the minimal clutches that tend to always be popular. I’ve actually excluded purses in my searching that can’t hold more than a phone, wallet and the typical basic makeup that always seems to be displayed in pictures to show how roomy the purse is cause I know they won’t hold half of what I tend to carry.

Being prepared can be helpful, but it can also be heavy.

There’s a cartoon that’s gone around where two ladies are waiting in a doctor’s waiting room and one has a purse that comically takes up most of the space around her while the other is carrying an average sized purse. The doctor comes out and asks them both “Which one of you is the diabetic?” The ladies together respond “Guess”.

All jokes aside, preparing for every “just in case” can be exhausting, especially mentally. It’s like loading up a purse with bricks, rocks and even cement and hauling it around like it’s full of sprinkles and feathers. It’s nice to be prepared, but sometimes the load is too much.

It’s hard for me to have a smaller purse because I carry so much stuff. It’s nice to be prepared for the random things that happen (like sore throats, random scrapes and cuts, etc), but it’s also heavy. Mentally too. Making sure the kids are set before we leave the house before school, or even outings to the parks, playgrounds and library that were commonplace pre-Covid can be a mental warm up for my day. Thankfully Mister is awesome at helping direct the kids to get what they need before school, but it’s not always easy wrangling the crazy cats, I mean kids, to get it done in a timely manner.

When you’re spending time with friends, but especially moms, please be aware that they may have a heavy mental load that they are carrying. Be kind and offer to help them with their mental load if it’s possible. It’s like taking out a few bricks out of their oversized purse to lighten their load, even for a brief respite. Even listening to them while they think they’re prattling on about the latest antics of their kids can be a welcomed break for them and the ongoing mental load that they carry.