by Michelle Stein posted in Parenting

Guys, I'm pretty sure I've achieved parental burnout. I don't know if it's because we're in the final stretch of the school year, or if it's just been too long since I've been able to catch my breath, but this mama is running on fumes. Like, most days I can't even; I'm an angry auto-pilot zombie mama. And no one wins.
If you're like me and feel as if you're on the brink of insanity, you could be experiencing parental burnout, too. Here are some telltale signs:
1) Every little thing irritates the hell out of you. The sound of your beloved children chewing their breakfast. The fact that all three of them are fighting over the same toy. Again. Your partner leaving the empty cat food can on the counter. Again. Washing the 50 million plastic sippy cups/water bottles/snack containers night after night after night. Everything feels like the last straw. 2) You drop your kids off at your gym's babysitting service, but have zero motivation to actually work out. So you don't. On Monday, I thought to myself, "Nope. I can't do this. Not today." I handed off my children to the ladies at my gym's childcare room, plopped myself on a chair in the lobby, and just existed. I caught up on emails and scrolled through Facebook -- with no grabby little hands snatching my phone and no butts needing wiping.

3) You need two cups of coffee in the morning just to form a coherent thought. If in the past few weeks, my kids have said anything importan...