It all takes SACRIFICE

     I stumbled upon an article the other day on Facebook or somewhere I was scrolling that said "friendship takes sacrifice". I thought about that for a minute and considered the season in life I am in and I kind of got annoyed. Here I am all worried about missing out on time with my kids and now there's this article making me feel guilty for not sacrificing for my friendships (insert dramatic eye roll).  
     A few weeks ago I wrote a post addressing my goals for the new year and this next decade. A major priority for me is time with my kids. I have committed to that and made that promise to myself. This time with them just goes too fast and soon they won't want to be with me all of the time and I won't have control over that. I don't want to see them grow up and move on and wish that I had spent more quality time with them. This will take sacrifice, it already has. This means, less time working out, less time with friends, less time being social, less time doing adult only things and less time on my work. I am 100% okay with that because time for all of those things will come.           We all have to choose to balance in life and sometimes that balancing happens throughout the day and sometimes that balancing happens according to what is happening in our life right now. I have had plenty of great times being social and making memories having adult time with my friends and being the absolute best teacher I can be and now it's time to have quality time and make memories with my kids and be the absolute best mom I can be. 
     I had a conversation with someone recently about how social media can be a toxic place in ways that cause us FOMO or guilt or wishing for more or different when we don't even actually want that. It's always interesting to me because I have been that person who wishes she had accepted an invitation to be social or even invited in the first place. However, every time I am, I am wishing I was home with my kids. Honestly, my favorite times are when I am snuggling on the couch watching Disney Plus or playing a board game and snacking with the boys, there is absolutely no place else I'd rather be. Those are the times that they will remember too. When they are older and reminiscing, it will be the little traditions and the quality time we shared together that they will remember. 
     I think it's important to remind ourselves that sacrifice is essential but that sacrifice needs to be right for right now. Sometimes, we allow ourselves to be guilted into sacrificing for what's not important at this time in our lives. In order to balance what is important we have to sacrifice in all other areas. There is no way that we can give 100% to everything in our life, we can try as hard as we want to but it's just not possible and we beat ourselves up for failing to do so. 
     I agree that friendship takes sacrifice, but so does everything else! I am choosing to take that pressure off of myself and be ok with sacrificing it all for what matters to me the most right now. Sometimes we just have to be confident in acknowledging what we need and what brings us happiness and give ourselves the permission to be the one who controls that.