It was the middle of January and the Christmas/New Year was over, and it was time to draw breath.

The holiday season had been its usual hectic self.

So much to do, so little time for her.

She felt as if she’d spent the last week of December and the beginning of the New Year on a treadmill.

It had been go go go.

There was so much to do and so many expectations to meet.

Christmas with its festivities, all expected to be like last year. Her family was like that, wanting the same thing each year. Tradition they called, and she was expected to provide everything so their precious egos could be satisfied.

She wondered what it would like for them if she wasn’t there.

Would it be the same?

Who would cook, clean and prepare?

Would any of them know how too?

They expected breakfast of a morning, lunch at midday and dinner in the evening. On top of that, they expected a never-ending supply of snacks in the pantry.

For her in-between those times was the cleaning, the washing, the folding, and the shopping.

It was true at Christmas the boys did give her the same present, a visit to the Opal Resort and Day Spa.

Next week she had booked herself in and looked forward to the experience, a day away from home, luxuriating in the spa, the massages, the facial, the pampering.

The boys always came round when she got home, wanting to know how it all went and what changes they could see in her. It never occurred to them that they could do more day to day to help slow down the feeling of being tired and run down.

She wasn’t getting any younger, there were age lines around her face, and her feet hurt more and more.

Once they’d satisfied themselves that she was their mum, they asked what was for tea.

The cycle of drudgery started all over again.

Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2021/01/14/tale-weaver-310-tired-and-run-down-14th-january/