Okay, before you think this girl is heartless hear me out. I am NOT talking about the genuine situation in which sorry is the appropriate response and is much needed. The sorry I am talking about are the “sorry, let me get that for you” “sorry, my house is a mess” “sorry, I didn’t get to workout this week.” Do these situations really need a sorry? More often than not I get the latter of these messages. Typically, like most of the others, sorry, it is followed with an excuse. “Sorry, I didn’t get to the workout this week”, I was so busy running around the kids and then the dishwasher broke…..and on and on you can imagine the number or excuses I have heard. I am all too guilty of the “sorry my house is a mess” for me, I usually blame it on the kids ( I promise my house was clean pre-kids).
Think about this for a moment what if we just stop saying sorry. “The house is a mess so it’s okay just leave on your shoes!” Notice something about the response...it doesn’t have an excuse. If we leave off the sorry we are forced to tell the truth. “Sorry, I can’t meet up with you tonight, I am just not feeling great.” But really let’s be honest the truth is...I don’t want to meet up tonight because I am already in my pajamas and watching Netflix! That doesn’t sound nearly as good as the I’m sorry excuse and guess what 9/10 you aren’t going to tell your friend that, which means you're going to get off the couch, put on some clothes and show up. If we stop saying sorry, we can ditch the excuse and just show up.
I know many of you are going to take this personally but DON’T because you are not alone. If you know me personally and have been in a situation where you have said “I’m sorry” you’ve probably heard me tell you, “you don’t need to be sorry.” I don’t expect a sorry because I don’t feel like it is a situation where sorry is necessary. So it’s time to ditch the sorry, ditch the excuse and just SHOW UP. You have one life to live and as mamas and caregivers we so often get wrapped up in showing up for other people we forget to show up for ourselves. Don’t be sorry for showing up for yourself, you deserve it!