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ZORA Check-In

Checking In: You’re Doing Great, Sweetie!

ZORA Editors
ZORA
Published in
2 min readAug 27, 2020

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Black and white image of a mother and son against a violet background.
Photo illustration; Image source: brusinski/Getty Images

“Stop being so hard on yourself. You’re doing better than you think.” — Maryam Hasnaa, energy worker, plant mama

I have two children under the age of seven. Remote school is about to start in Chicago. I don’t have enough Wi-Fi data to support everyone’s needs, and a new plan is hugely expensive. There have been five family deaths. Five. Oh, and my youngest child took some scissors and cut patterns of squares into the curtains.

For a moment there, I thought the world was collapsing and I wasn’t doing well enough at being a great wife and companion to my husband, a wonderful mother to my children, and also a good worker at my job. Just for a moment. Then I pulled myself back to reality. We are living in peculiar times, and I need to give myself more grace. Those curtains can be replaced (or not, as several weeks into the new pattern, I rather like the dappled sunlight). And my husband and children don’t criticize me; that’s me criticizing me.

No one is harder on me than me. So I’m quite likely doing better than I think.

ZORA fam, do you need to ease up on yourself? Share how you give yourself permission to take time off from striving. #ZORACheckIn

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ZORA
ZORA

Published in ZORA

A publication from Medium that centers the stories, poetry, essays and thoughts of women of color.

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