Encouragement for the stay at home mom lacking motivation. 14 ideas to find your spark back.

You know when you start to get into a rut, and you feel like you cannot escape the day to day heaviness of your duties as a Mom. You need to find a way to get your spark back, and find some encouragement as a stay at home mom lacking motivation.

Flinching awake out of a dead sleep and open your eyes to your toddler’s eyes an inch away. “Mommy, I need food NOW! My tummy is angry!”

Sound familiar at all? Are you waking up every day, feeling dread for what the day is going to bring? Do you feel like you have lived every single day over and over again for weeks on end? 

As a busy Mom myself, I know firsthand what it is like to feel like every single day is the same. Like you’re fighting the same battles, and ALWAYS running on not enough sleep. 

These are some of the ways that I myself have kept myself feeling motivated, even during these hard ‘little’ years.  

Whether your kids are still small, or are teenagers you can still start to feel exhausted, burnt-out and lack motivation as a stay at home Mom. It can happen to ANY type of Mom, at any point in her life. 

The days may start to feel the same, start running together. You feel like you are constantly serving your families wants and needs, somehow NEVER finding the time for your own needs.

It doesn’t mean that we don’t want to serve our families and that we don’t love them an unbelievable amount.

Sadly, this is just the reality of #Momlife, that sometimes as a stay at home mom, we can lack motivation and it’s something we have to claw our way back up out of.

Lack of motivation, and burnout can happen to working Mom’s too, but we are going to specifically talk to stay at home Mom’s for this.

So, because we all know the many reasons WHY Mom’s can start to loose motivation in the daily grind of this phase of life, let’s look at 14 things that will HELP get that spark back. 

Ways a stay at home mom lacking motivation can find that spark back 

1. Identify the source of the lack of motivation

Is it actually because of your kids, is it because you haven’t had a date night with hubby in years. Maybe it because you’re still rocking the exact same outfits from 5 years ago and just feel ‘bleh’ about your self-image?

There are many things that can contribute to our moods feeling ‘bleh’ projecting into other areas of our life. And it can be surprising to realize it’s not actually always because of our kids. Gasp!

2. Set some goals:

Setting a new goal for myself has always been a good way to get my motivational juices flowing again. These goals can be super simple if you’re short on mental energy or physical time or really complex.

3. Find a hobby

Sometimes the best way to find some joy again when we are a stay at home mom lacking motivation, is to pick something that we WANT to do for ourselves and do it.

So often we feel bad for spending time, money or resources on ourselves because we don’t value our place in the home.

We tend to think that staying home and not bringing home a tangible income means that we shouldn’t spend money on hobbies. But we should come up with some ideas and pursue it, if it is something that will bring us some joy!

4. Reward yourself

Determine some simple rewards and find ways to use those rewards to give you some excitement when completing difficult tasks. Even use rewards when you set little goals for yourself throughout the day.

5. Be disciplined

Do your hardest tasks first – or eat the frog first

6. Brain dump

Let all your worries out on paper. It will make you feel physically lighter, seriously.

Just brain dump all those thoughts onto some paper and you will start to be able to see that many of the items on your ‘overwhelm’ list are out of your control.

Or that they require help to get done, or are just not as important as they seem when they’re not swirling around your head

7. Reflective journaling

Sometimes it can be helpful to do a simple reflection at the end of every day just recalling something funny, exciting or the normal events of the day.

It can sometime help us to remember why we are at home with our kids soaking all these memories up while we can.

8. Start planning out your day

Don’t be too zealous to start. Begin with baby steps. Make some plans at night for how you would like the next day to go.

Set low expectations so that all your wins (no matter how small) will feel massive, encouraging, and spur you on further

9. Create a simple daily routine

Get help with your evening routines here.

Knowing what to expect for the major events of your day, every day. Can really help you to have more control over the time loss areas of each day.

These daily routines have to be adjusted according to your stage of life. When your kids are little you will spend most of the day just feeding them, let your routine reflect that!

10. Begin your day with something that brings you joy

Start every day doing something you want to do, that helps you to feel good. Starting your day feeling good can help you feel motivated + happy. Some ideas could be a hot cup of coffee, a nourishing breakfast, journalling.

11. Be purposeful in how you look

Even if your husband leaves the home before you do, that doesn’t mean we should allow ourselves to stay in our pj’s all day. We can still look nice, be comfortable, and be capable of carrying out our mom duties.

Get dressed for moveable comfort + and to look nice. Try a new ponytail hairstyle . Put on a little makeup.

Remember, you are also setting an example for your kids. If you are good at getting prepared for the day quickly upon waking, they will learn from that. It becomes routine for them as well to hurry along with getting dressed, eating, and making themselves ready for the day.

12. Wake up intentionally

Whenever you do choose to wake up. Whether that be 15 minutes before your kids, or at the same time as your kids. Let that decision be INTENTIONAL. When it is an intentional decision to wake up at that time, you can’t allow yourself to be grumpy about how little sleep you may have got.

(I know little kids wake up at unpredictable times, and I also know that they will quite often wake up the minute you are) So, only try this if your stage of life allows it. But it can make a difference in your overall mindset for how you start your day.

13. Nourish yourself

Consider making your breakfast BEFORE you feed your kids, or better yet the night before. So you can start eating within minutes of waking (if that’s your jam) No it’s not selfish, you need nourishment as well and you may feel more energized to make your kids a better breakfast if your not starving.

Once again this depends so heavily upon your family dynamics, when everyone leaves the home for the day (if they do for school/work etc). And your priorities. For some families, breakfast is the ‘one on one’ meal time they have as a family in a day.

14. Fresh air and movement

Consider exercising or go for a walk outside while your kids + spouse are still sleeping/don’t need you. Having some alone time first thing in the morning can be wonderful for our mental health, if our phase of life allows it.

If you are a stay at home Mom lacking motivation, you don’t have to feel this way forever.

Being a Mom; especially of little kids, can feel really repetitive and draining. 

Sometimes it feels like all we do is give of ourselves, and our families seem oblivious to it.

But the encouragement is this if you are lacking motivation

• There are ways we can get our spark back
• It will not feel this way forever
• Even if they do not show it, our families DO know how badly/much they need us
• We are fulfilling a very, very important role in our families lives

We will find that motivation again. Sometimes all it takes is making a little promise to ourselves that we are going to DO SOMETHING that will help us to feel/be better.

For myself, I was in a rut. A MAJOR rut in the fall of 2021. I felt absolutely out of control of everything and didn’t feel like I had the ability to change my circumstances.

BUT, after a pretty major wake-up call, I made a promise to myself that I was going to find a way to make myself BE better so I could FEEL better.

That process started by starting the habit of daily planning. It truly changed my entire outlook, my motivation, and my household. 

So I encourage YOU to pick something like that, big or small that you are going to do to find that motivation again.

Thanks for reading and bye for now!

Amy