I wanted to write something profound and witty that makes you smile to read it. I wanted to share my top ten lists for something fascinating and intriguing and give you food for thought. I wanted to write a review of something life-changing you can add to your routine that helps you with your day. I wanted to share the ways some changes in my home are improving my relationship with my kids.
And yet, sometimes it’s hard to come up with interesting ideas or witty new posts that don’t feel like I’m writing the same story again and again. Or attempting to reinvent the wheel. Or using fancy new language for something we’ve all experienced before.
Sometimes writing a blog post is a struggle because it’s snow day number 384 and my brain has been melting since 8am when the kids were fighting over whether we’d eat cereal or Eggos. It’s because the well has run dry, the snow turned to mush, the patience dipped to negatives, and the general consensus is that phoning it in is just how this month is.
Snow days are tough.
The kids are feral. The emotions run high as you debate how many hours of screen time to allow and how to balance work when childcare isn’t available. After 52 Cheez-it bags disappear in two days and your kids are squirreling away the evidence in piles strategically hidden under the bonus room couch, it’s easy to wonder if your sanity is whittling away just as fast as the snack stash.
And so I am writing today to say thanks to the group chat.
Some friends of mine from high school are all part of a group chat, and we’re now commiserating over spilled milk and PTO used to manage snow day mayhem. We’re dishing on how to handle behavioral issues and whether the grocery bill will ever decrease. (Spoiler: it won’t. I know. We’re crying, too.)
But we’re talking through the hard things and the weird stuff and even the things that don’t get aired in “polite” conversation, and somehow it makes the long days easier.
Here’s to the women who knew me when I was the awkward one dressed in yellow track pants and t-shirts two sizes too large. They’re now the ones laughing with me as we discuss the way my oldest brings up topics too old for his age at the dinner table and I have to field these questions in real time. They’re now the ones who share how tough it is to hold a job while being the ones responsible for making sure the kids are taken care of when the schools and daycares close for weather. They’re the ones making me shake my head at how a group of adult women can still have some of the most unhinged chats about things.
I can’t help finding the group chat to be a comfort when schedules get screwed up, the weather doesn’t cooperate, kids are running amok, and I’m ready to hide in the bathroom with a spoon and a jar of Nutella just for a few minutes of quiet. And that’s where the relief of a discussion about the newest season of Bridgerton or a chat about Frieda McFadden’s books or swapping Dollar Tree skincare dupes comes in.
The group chat is real. It’s not the social media cutesy posts. It’s not curated. It’s a group of moms sharing life, and honestly, it’s sometimes exactly what I need when the urge to just phone it in comes along trying to keep me stuck in a rut.
So, here’s to the group chat, the friends who let you be yourself, and to the moments when you just need a space on a snow day.
