Overwhelm Isn’t a Sign You’re Failing—It’s a Sign You’ve Been Carrying Too Much

Let’s stop calling it a phase.

Let’s stop pretending it’s normal to feel like you're holding up the whole house, the family, the calendar, the emotions—while holding back your own needs.

This kind of overwhelm isn’t a glitch in the system.

It is the system.

And for too long, we’ve been taught to survive it instead of question it.

I never saw overwhelm as a weakness. I saw it for what it was:

A sign I had reached my limits.

A signal that the way I was living—and mothering—wasn’t sustainable.

Not for me, and not for the kind of woman I wanted my children to grow up watching.

That realization didn’t come with a dramatic crash.

It came quietly—on a Tuesday.

I was juggling work, dinner, a forgotten school form, and a child’s outburst all at once.

I wasn’t failing.

I was functioning.

But just barely.

And I knew something had to change.

What I’ve come to believe is this:

Overwhelm is not a measure of your inadequacy.

It’s proof that you’ve been carrying too much, for too long, without enough support, space, or grace.

And the fix isn’t hustle, or hacks, or better organization.

It’s honesty.

It’s boundaries.

It’s asking, What would it look like to mother from a place of strength, not strain?

That question changed everything for me.

It didn’t solve the chaos overnight.

But it gave me permission to stop tolerating what I once accepted as “just the way it is.”

If you’re reading this with a lump in your throat or a knot in your chest—

you already know what needs to shift.

You are not failing.

You are waking up.