The "Perfect" Storm

Lately, my perfectionist tendencies have been going gangbusters, which is making the lives of my family absolutely miserable.

Maybe it's a result of the insanely busy schedule we have all been keeping.  As if the start of school and all of its meetings and catch up work on room and curriculum and about 80 bazillion other things aren't enough to try to manage, this year is stacked.  The first couple of weeks of school have coincided with a lot of business trips for Mr. ReddHedd.  When you add that to some extracurricular activities for The Peanut having hyped themselves on steroids just prior to the local Italian Heritage Festival in which she'll be participating this year? 

You end up with one frazzled momma.

Today I'm juggling laundry, class preparations, trying to re-organize my closet area to get better access to my clothes and attempting to somehow come up with a healthy menu plan that isn't too difficult to prepare and that everyone in the family can eat.  Easier said than done if my initial stab is indicative this morning.

Worse, while making breakfast, I kept getting interrupted by The Peanut who was bored and demanding immediate attention and I snapped at her, causing a whole cascade of pouting and discussion about tone and...well, you know how that goes, you feel guilty for losing your temper and that just makes everything worse, doesn't it?


I need to manage things on a more regular schedule, so that this build-up doesn't happen of "to do" lists a mile long.  It couldn't be helped at the start of school, but for my own sanity's sake, I have to find a better way to streamline all of this.

More importantly, though, I have to let go of doing everything perfectly and allow good enough to be okay on a whole host of things or my brain may very well explode.

But how do you let go of a lifetime of perfectionist tendencies?  It's a mystery for me, but one that I am determined to solve.

Have you successfully learned to let things go a little?  To ratchet back the need to exceed everyone's expectations all the time and to not feel like a guilty failure when you cannot immediately gratify everyone's requests for you?  I have got to figure out a way to do just that -- and to learn to say "no" more often and not have it eat at me afterward.

If you have read a book or tried something that has really worked to help with this, please share.  Today, I'm in desperate need of some good advice on this and would welcome your thoughts and suggestions.

(Photo via cloud_nine.)