When You’re Touched Out, Tired, and Still Expected to Show Up

This morning, my eyes closed at the lights on the drive to school.

Not because I don’t care.
Not because I’m careless.
Because I’m exhausted in a way sleep doesn’t always fix.

The school run is 45 minutes there and 45 minutes home. Soon, I’ll be doing multiple drop-offs with another child starting school, plus the boys. On top of that, I’m running two businesses, trying to keep a household functioning, and showing up for kids who need more support than the world often realises.

And some nights? One or more of the kids wake up and can be awake for hours.
By the time morning comes, I’m up again at 5:30am, making lunches, getting uniforms sorted, coaxing everyone out the door, and hoping coffee can perform miracles.

This is what burnout looks like for a lot of parents.
Not dramatic. Not obvious. Just a slow, heavy tiredness that sits in your bones.

“Self-Care” Isn’t a Luxury. It’s Maintenance.

We hear the word self-care thrown around like it means bubble baths and long walks. And sure, those things are lovely when they’re possible. But for many parents — especially those raising neurodivergent children — self-care is often much simpler and much harder:

• It’s sitting in silence for five minutes in the car before you walk into the house.
• It’s taking a shower without someone knocking on the door.
• It’s letting the washing wait one night because your nervous system needs a break.
• It’s acknowledging you’re touched out and asking for space — without guilt.

Being touched out doesn’t make you a bad parent.
It makes you a human whose body has been in “give mode” all day, every day.

Loving Your Children Doesn’t Mean Emptying Yourself

We can love our neurodivergent kids fiercely and still admit that the load is heavy.
Appointments. School runs. Emotional regulation. Night wakings. The constant background noise of “am I doing enough?”

There’s a quiet pressure parents carry — especially mums — to be everything, all the time. To keep the house running. To keep businesses moving. To be emotionally available. To not complain. To not slow down.

But here’s the truth we don’t say enough:

To give our children what they need to thrive, we also need to take care of ourselves.

That doesn’t mean being selfish.
It means being sustainable.

When Rest Feels Like Failure

There’s this tension many working parents feel:
If I rest, am I giving up?
If I nap, am I falling behind?

Sometimes, even well-meaning partners don’t quite understand the mental load of running businesses on top of parenting. The pressure to “just rest” can feel frustrating when you know that rest doesn’t make the to-do list disappear. The emails still need replies. The orders still need processing. The planning still needs to happen.

But here’s the balance we’re all trying to find:

You can’t pour from an empty cup.
And you also can’t build something meaningful if you’re running on fumes.

Both things are true.

If You’re in This Season Too

If you’re reading this and nodding along — if you’re tired in your bones, touched out, stretched thin, and still showing up — I see you.

You’re not weak for needing rest.
You’re not failing because you’re exhausted.
You’re not alone in feeling like you’re holding a lot.

Sometimes self-care is not doing more.
It’s letting yourself do a little less, without the guilt.

And if today all you did was get the kids to school, keep everyone safe, and survive the morning — that counts.
It counts more than you think.