The relief I needed
When I was at a job I hated, I would routinely think that if I quit, I would feel refreshed and on a high for weeks or months afterwards.
When I'm exhausted as a parent, I'll think I need an entire weekend to myself to recover.
But once I quit that job, within a week, I was back to my baseline. I was glad I quit and moved on to something else, but there was no sustained high.
Once it's nap time, and I have an hour or two to myself, I'll feel loads better by the time it's over. I even miss the baby a little bit.
It turns out that the relief I need is far smaller than the relief I typically imagine.