Surviving Motherhood Winter Blues

Winter is an interesting season. The crisp and cold temperatures are both invigorating and depressing for me. When I step outdoors on a cold winter day I find myself feeling renewed and energized, even if before stepping outside I was tired and worn out. When I stay inside during the long winter months, I find myself fighting depression as the winter blues try to take over me. I long for the hot summer days and wishing the winter season away before it has really even begun.

As a mom, struggling with winter blues or depression makes every part of life difficult. The hardest part of this struggle is parenting because our kids have so much energy and sometimes going outside is just not an option. It takes intentional planning to ensure that you are able to survive motherhood winter blues.

The hardest part of motherhood at wintertime for me is that my children love playing outside. Each year they build snow forts, make sledding paths, god ice fishing and more. I do not like the cold at all, yet I’m realizing that I need something the cold weather brings in order to survive the winter blues.

As we are just getting into a new year and the new winter season, this is a great time to take steps to intentionally plan on how we’re going to survive winter without visiting the winter blues.

First, take time to write down a few projects that you’ve been wanting to complete that you’ll have more time for throughout the winter months. 

A few projects that I’d like to complete are:

• A new cross stitch project
• Teach my daughter to sew
• Teach my son to make printable packs

Next, take a few moments and jot down things that you enjoy doing at home. 

A few of my favorite things to do at home are:

• Bake
• Read
• Write

Then, consider what activities that you and your kids enjoy doing together during the winter specifically. 

Some of our favorite winter family time activities are:

• Watching movies
• Playing board and card games
• Reading aloud together

Now, be honest with yourself and record some things that your kids have asked you to do, things you’d like to do with them and something(s) that you’ve been wanting to try. 

I know I need to do these things this winter:

• Play in the snow with my kids
• Go ice fishing with my family
• Start my book

Finally, spend some time looking over your lists. The activities you see on these lists are keys to surviving motherhood winter blues. 

Staying busy and spending quality time with your family doing things together are the best ways to survive the winter blues. 

To ensure that you don’t forget all of the activities that you want to do this winter, download a copy of the Free Winter Blues Buster Printable below. Write down all of your activities from the exercise in this post and then display your list where you and your family can see it all winter long.

Anytime that you feel the winter blues sneaking up on you, pick an activity from your winter blues buster list and do it! You’ll be surprised at the end of the winter season just how much you accomplished during the winter months, so be sure to keep track of everything you do!

How do you survive the winter blues?

Winter Blues Buster List