Is it just me, or do other mothers get the post holiday blues? My DD is turning one next week, so she has already hit all of her 'first' holidays. I'm glad that I took a couple hundred pics (lol. no kidding... I actually have 3 memory cards maxed out. hee hee hee) but I'm feeling a little blue about Easter being over. This was her last first holiday. Of course, as she gets older the holidays will only get more fun because she will actually 'get' what's going on... and I am looking forward to what is to come... but I always feel a little sad after a holiday ends. I don't even go 'all out' for holidays, so I don't get why I'm dissapointed at the end. It has always been this way for me, but it seems a bit more intense now that I have a kid of my own. Anyone else?
~Just want to add... It's nothing I'm actually depressed over, just a slightly blue feeling. I mentioned it to a friend, who was relieved about being 'done' with the holidays... so I was just curious about others.
I think Jennifer S. nailed it on the head... lol. I didn't even think of that... but I moved from Idaho to Texas while I was prego, then from Texas to Tennessee when my DD was 6 months old, so most of the people in my family haven't met her yet. I think I might just be feeling guilty that she will be a year old, and I still haven't been able to take that trip home. My family usually does a big informal barbecue for most holidays, so maybe that's what I'm really missing. I am super excited for the holidays to come though!
I sometimes get post- holiday blues, I love holidays, I don't know how much I get the blues for my kids and how much for me, but on Easter I don't get too blue, I always end up eating more candy then what I should, lol.
ACTUALLY... You get a first next week. Your first "real" mother's day. The kids, they think it's their birthday; they're wrong. It's the world's best mother's day ever.
I don't count the day we meet them, since we're usually too exhausted to really get the 'full' effect.
I never had before, but this past year we moved 1000 miles from all of our friends and family so we spent all of the Holidays (except Christmas) just as a family of 3. That made me sad. I have a large and very close family, so it sucks to miss out being with them...
I hear you...the sadness fades the older they get. In fact, I was in bed almost asleep and realized I had to get up and fill Easter baskets--uggh! I laugh because my children are 17, 15, and 11. None of them still "believe" in the Easter Bunny, but they still get baskets and enjoy them even though they know they come from their Dad and me. This past Christmas was the first year in 17 years that I didn't have to stay up until 1 a.m. and crawl up into a freezing attic to play Santa. Honestly, I didn't miss that. Enjoy these younger years, take lots of pictures, and my bet is that you'll be okay once your daughter is grown.
I sometimes find myself feeling a little blue after the holidays. I do wonder how much of the blues I feel are really mine and how much is the projected (commercial driven) expectations that accompany so many of the holidays. TV ads, (as well as other media) often show Hallmark families - How many of us even come close to measuring up to that standard????? How much of our sadness post-holiday is actually due to our feelings that OUR holiday somehow did not measure up to some unreal, unattainable, standard someone else set. I am trying to develop my own standard that takes into account who my family and friends are - why would I expect them to suddenly behave differently on Easter than on Palm Sunday. Just something you might think about.
There would be something wrong with your little girl if she didn't grow up. If she didn't have to pass through time, you wouldn't have her. She gets to have another Easter next year! But you know that.
For some of us, no holiday - or any other day - is ever as happy or perfect as our imaginations say it OUGHT to be. The trouble with that is that it keeps us focused on the fact that it didn't live up to our imaginary ideals, and we come close to missing some of the delights that are really there.
For me, the thing to do is to be thankful, consciously and deliberately, for the holiday when it ends, instead of allowing regret to take charge. And you really are thankful for your day today, aren't you? I thought so.
Holidays have an exhaustion component as well, which makes some mamas glad they're done! Back to regular life!
I do. We kinda had a let down with grandma(mil). But we were able to make a swift recovery with the kids. It was still a beautiful day(even the rain coming outta the clouds). We had an amazing day with our uncles yesterday. So I guess it doesn't matter. We still had a great weekend and we still have plenty to rejoice about!! There is always next year to perfect it!!!!
Oh....the firsts aren't over. Next Easter will be her first Easter AFTER her first Easter.
There are holidays every time we turn around. Mother's day is coming up, Father's day, 4th of July...the calender is full of holidays.
You seem like a really sentimental person, so I don't mean to make light. I'm very sentimental too. I have a 24 year old who is due with her own baby any day and a 15 year old son. There's always another birthday, another holiday, another reason to celebrate.
I try to celebrate events in life more than what is marked on the calender, but that's just me. We have had such a long, cold and dreary winter that all I can find myself looking forward to is summertime. My son's birthday is in June, I won't have to worry about it being too cold for my new grandson to be out and about without 400 layers and a fire going.
I don't know. The first year is so special and you're right...you never get the firsts back, but you have a million firsts to look forward to. At LEAST a million!
You have so much to look forward to. Try to look at it that way. That's the best advice I can give.
Best wishes.
I always felt down after Christmas (we didn't really celebrate other holidays much, other than buying a bag of candy at Easter or Halloween); I think it was because that day is always built up so much that it can't live up to our expectations of it -- no day can -- so we're left feeling unfulfilled instead of fulfilled. Sort of like watching a movie that a friend hyped as being the most awesome movie s/he's ever seen, and then when you see it, you think, "Yeah, it was good... but not THAT good," -- your expectations were too high; had you gone in with lower expectations, you would have liked it better. [I've done that, anyway; so try not to hype a movie too much, lest others have a similar let-down.]
So, yeah, I think it's fairly common actually. And you have to realize that many parents feel a mixture of sadness as their child grows up. Sure, we enjoy our kids at every stage, and wouldn't want them to remain a baby forever, but my husband always got sad when one of our kids passed a milestone -- for example, getting his first tooth. He would always say, "Awww, no more gummy smiles...." You're probably feeling both of these holiday let-downs -- as you said, "No more 'first holidays'" and also, just the typical post-holiday let-down that even kids and adults w/o kids feel.
You are adorable. I do not want to sound crabby, or give you the impression that I do not enjoy holidays, because I do...but some of it starts to feel a wee bit like work and for me as fun as parts can be I am happy when it is all said and done. I have plastic eggs to pack away still ( they are usually around for a couple of days because my youngest likes to play with them) but I am glad the extra cooking, baking is over with and also that I get to reclaim my closet, that has been the secret stash for 3 kiddo's worth of bunny stuff for the past month = ) I do think it is different when it is your first...I however have a 15 yr old, a 10 yr old ( who stresses out over holidays) and my youngest who will be 4 in June ( he was super excited about the egg hunt)
If it helps look up what the next holiday is and start planning = ) My family makes a pretty big deal out of all the holidays.
I think I felt this after my babies' first Christmas, but once you start going through the second holidays, that feeling won't come back. I start getting excited knowing there are so many more to come!
I actually have been enjoying my son's seconds of the holiday much better than his firsts. He actually did things other than sit and drool. (Although he has done a bit of that). Maybe you'll find the second's better than the first.
I do miss the fact that my baby is no longer a baby. Especially since I have no idea when I'll be able to have another child. I'm single and not prospects in sight, so it will probably be a bit :( I feel your blueness.
You know, all I have left with my youngest daughter is her first birthday in a few weeks, and she'll be done with her "firsts" for holidays, too.
I actually can't empathize with you...I just don't feel that way. The pictures are wonderful to have...be glad you took so many.
But you know why I don't feel the way you do? Because I have a daughter who is 6. You will learn, as the months and years go on, that each holiday is BETTER because they are older and have more fun, and begin to understand family and religious traditions, can help in planning and celebrating, etc. It really gets quite fun, when they understand what's going on.
I do feel that way after Christmas, though. I decorate right after Halloween, play music for two months, shop and wrap things early so the presents are under the tree all pretty for a month, at least, and watch Christmas specials year round on VHS...so after Christmas is over, it's a huge letdown, and I take the tree down before New Years. Ugh.
