The Myth of Slow Living as a Mum of 3 (What It’s REALLY Like)

We hear so much about slow living, peaceful mornings, tidy homes, quiet walks, perfectly calm children and if you spend even five minutes on Instagram or Pinterest it almost feels like that's the standard that we're supposed to reach. But here's the truth. Real life doesn't look like that and I'm sure you know that. Not for me, not for anyone I know. My life is so full, my hands are busy and my home is loud and honestly most of the time there's a mess just slightly out of frame and maybe you felt it too. That kind of tension between what you see online and what your actual life looks like and maybe you've even wondered am I doing something wrong? Why am I not getting this? As a mum of three I can tell you honestly, you're not. Because slow living, at least the way it's often sold to us, it's kind of a myth and if you've ever felt guilty because your days don't feel serene and your home doesn't look picture perfect or your mornings are anything but slow then you are not alone. But here's the good news that peace doesn't come from having a perfectly quiet life but it comes from something deeper than that and that's something I love to share on this channel and that's what I want to talk about today. What true peace looks like when you're in the the thick of motherhood and homemaking and when your days are busy and your life is just beautifully ordinary. If you're new here, welcome to English Rose Cottage. My name is Mia, this is where I share my life as a wife and a mother of three and a homemaker creating beauty in the everyday and finding peace in the middle of our real life and rediscovering the joys of traditional homemaking in the English countryside. This channel is all about slowing down but it's more slowing down on the inside even when life outside feels busy and I like to capture beauty that slows us down and so if that sounds like something you need you are in the right place. When people talk about slow living they usually show perfectly set tables and steaming mugs of coffee and quiet mornings and I'll be honest I absolutely love that idea and I love it when those mornings happen for me. Who wouldn't want that? But here's what my mornings actually look like. It's bacon sizzling, eggs cracking, the kettle always boiling, children asking questions before. I've had my first sip of tea some days and some days it feels like a race just to get everyone fed and I used to think if I could just make our mornings slow and perfect I'd feel more peaceful but what I've learned is this that slowness outside doesn't guarantee that peace on the inside because no matter how early I wake up or how hard I try to set the tone children do have needs and homes get messy and mornings move quickly and that's just okay. So instead of chasing a perfectly slow morning I've started focusing on something better just finding peace while I cook, relaxing my shoulders, letting my nervous system calm down. I don't need to rush I'm a homeschool mum so there's nowhere to be. Just finding peace while I cook, while I tea, while I sit with the children at the table. I just want them to remember the smell of bacon and the sound of the kettle constantly on and the comfort of home even if the mornings aren't perfectly quiet and that feels like the heart of it to me. So living isn't actually the goal of our lives. Peaceful living on the inside is and finding true peace and here is the thing trying to live slowly on the outside doesn't really work with children in the house sometimes but there is one shift that I've made that completely changed the way that I approach these busy mornings and these busy days and I'll show that in just a moment. As a mum of three life is full on and I've learned how important it is to care for my own health too. This part of today's video is kindly sponsored by Get Healthy UTV. It's an online resource for motivating at-home workouts. I love that they make it simple to just get moving even if I only have 10 minutes. There are so many options from bar and walking to cardio strength and low impact workouts all led by encouraging trainers who keep it fun. Even a short session makes such a difference to my energy and balance for the day. They're always adding new workouts and there's also a supportive community with live Q&As which really helps stay consistent. So if you'd like to join me the first 1000 of you who click the link in my description can get a full year of premium membership for just $1.49. It's such an amazing offer. So here's the shift that I mentioned earlier. I stopped chasing the image of slow living and started asking how do I carry peace with me no matter what the day looks like and what it entails. And I have found that the countryside has been one of my best teachers in this because on the surface it looks still and quiet like it's the perfect definition of slow living. But the truth is when you really look at it it's not slow at all. There are farmers working and animals are tended, fields are ploughed and harvested and there is a rhythm and there is a rest but there is also hard work. And that's what I've started to see in my own life at home. Raising children, running a household, homeschooling, none of it is actually very slow but it is purposeful and purpose is where that peace is going to grow. I think one of the reasons I love the countryside so much is because it reminds me to see the beauty in what's simple and right in front of me. Out here in the fields it's nothing feels rushed. The seasons just take the time and each one has its purpose. Autumn isn't trying to be spring and winter doesn't hurry itself into summer. There is just a steadiness to it. And that's I share these moments with you because sometimes especially as mothers we need the reminder that life doesn't have to look perfect to be good. The countryside isn't flawless you know we've got muddy boots and rainy days, the constant work of tending the land but it holds a kind of beauty that is so honest and I think that's why it speaks to me so deeply. For me walking these fields or driving down those beautiful narrow lanes is more than just scenery it's a chance to pause to take a breath and to remember that the God who cares for the birds and the grass also cares for me and for my children and for our home and when I carry that truth back inside it changes the way I look at my day. And that's why I treasure the little rituals at home and I love sharing those too and when I walk back through the door those rhythms just continue and today it's cooking one of our favourite meals, a classic roast lamb dinner. It's not quick, it's not flashy but it's ours and in these ordinary tasks that the lessons of the countryside seem to settle most deeply into my heart. So now it's time to get this roast dinner underway. I've coated the lamb simply with salt and pepper and I'm placing it on a trivet of vegetables with some oil. It's nothing fancy but everything with peppers and while it roasts I'll move on to the rest of the meal. I've got some classic fluffy roasted potatoes lined up with some tender greens and sweet carrots and of course the Yorkshire pudding batter I already have in the fridge ready to go. There's something about these meals that definitely goes beyond the food for me even though the food is delicious. For me it's about building the family traditions at home, sitting down together for a Sunday roast, sharing stories of the week, having fun, laughing, there's the chaos that all is involved too and it all becomes part of our rhythm and these moments are small, they are simple but they anchor us and they're also a way of embracing our culture which I really enjoy doing, our British traditions and passing them on to our children and I love finding those little ways of celebrating our heritage whether it's those perfectly golden Yorkshire puddings or a roasted lamb or even something simple like a pot of tea after lunch. It just reminds me that homemaking isn't just chores, it's about creating that home that holds the memory and the warmth and the meaning. So here's the thing about that slow living, it makes it sound like the goal is an empty calendar and quiet rooms and long peaceful stretches where nothing needs doing but life with children or life in general really rarely looks like that and if we chase that I think we can end up frustrated thinking like we're failing but what I've learned instead is that peace doesn't come from slowing everything down, it comes from building rhythms of rest right in the middle of life. It's about finding small steady moments in the day that help you to breathe and reflect and reset without needing everything else to stop around you and for me it's the mornings before the children wake up. I'll share more about my morning routine with you next week and a quiet cup of tea, a few minutes to pray or journal and simply just sitting and getting through a few tasks in the house. That's a rhythm I keep returning to because it reminds me that I'm not defined by the chaos around me. Even when the house is noisy, even when the day is full I can carry that peace inside me and those rhythms don't end there you know cooking a roast with the children helping and laughing and humming along with the music. There's rest in that ordinary flow of life as well and like setting the table and taking a moment to breathe while the dinner's in the oven and just sipping on a hot drink mid-prep and these are the small repeatable acts that are gonna anchor you throughout your day and they aren't slow living in the Instagram sense but they bring a real and steady kind of calm that carries you through the rest of the day. This is where the myth of slow living kind of falls apart and it tells us we need ideal circumstances to feel calm but real peace is rooted in Christ, not in a perfectly quiet home. When our hearts are anchored in him we can find rest while we work, while we laugh, while we serve and while we build our home even while life is busy and noisy and unpredictable. So rest isn't about stopping work it's about creating these rhythms, moments to pause, to calm down, to breathe and to remember what matters while the world keeps on moving. It's practical, it's ordinary and it's exactly what sustains us in motherhood. So if you've enjoyed spending this time with me today I'd love it if you could tap the hype button, it's such a small thing but it really helps small creators like me keep sharing these moments and making more content for you and next week I'll share my actual morning routine, how I start my day before the children wake and the simple steps that help keep me calm and grounded because your life doesn't have to be slow to be meaningful and the ordinary is absolutely so beautiful when we are slow on the inside. I'll see you next week, bye!