Julie Jay: Like oil and water, rest and motherhood simply don’t mix

I used to be great at napping during the day, but now I am as much a stranger to an afternoon siesta as I am to brushing my hair

As a mother, I am physically programmed to view rest as weakness, even failure, and so I baulk at any suggestion from my inner circle that I should just take a nap. Picture: iStock 

I have a confession, and it’s not even a juicy one: I do not know how to rest. I used to think I did. Before motherhood, I thought rest was just something human beings did. Like blinking. Or scrolling through Instagram pretending not to judge people you went to school with.

But apparently rest is a skill and, as a fully grown adult, tax-paying, allegedly functional woman, I have all the resting abilities of a malfunctioning fridge. My temperature can oscillate between Baltic and Mediterranean in the space of minutes, and I can leak drops of water for no reason. But rest? Not a chance.