When work and play both feature a glowing rectangle, is there really a difference?

All work and no play… barely matters when it’s all on the computer anyway, right?

From February 28th to the first week of May, my daughter was sick with only a few days of random wellness here and there to break up the endless monotony of cold after cold. She finally seemed to be better for good when suddenly I came down with the sniffles right at the start of May. Long story short, what I assumed was just me finally getting her cold went from a respiratory tract infection to a sinus infection to bronchitis. At lot of this illness was terrifyingly reminiscent of the whooping cough I had three years ago with the Never! Not! Coughing! feel and I don’t know how I would have survived if not for husband, as always, but especially my awesome parents who, despite my mother being sick with what seems like the same thing on top of a chronic condition, took the little widget for a bunch of days in a row (and came to get her at dawn to boot!) so that I could get some rest. They rock so hard, I can’t even express how amazing they are. I firmly believe that extra sleep they got me is the only reason I’m back on my feet as fast as I am. I love my tiny bestie so much but running after her while you’re coughing so hard you’re vomiting over and over was just impossible. 

Monday, May 4th was the first day I can honestly say I actually felt better instead of worse in two weeks and I’m having to really fight the urge to not just immediately crank my life back up to 11 instead of easing back into it like I should. I’ve talked in the past about how I’m bad at self-care and giving myself breaks and another big element to that is that what should be our relaxing weekends together as a family are claimed by a variety of things from husband’s work to mandatory in-law activities that mean we don’t only miss out on that break half the time, it usually means more work and stress than the workweek itself for all of us. I’m positive I wouldn’t have gotten as sick as I did if I’d been able to take it easy on that first weekend it all started and I’m not sure what to do with that knowledge.

Compulsory commitments aside,  I do think I need to rethink how I use the parts of my life I DO have control over. I need to figure out how to throw a self-care ball up But what does relaxing look like when your work and play are so similar? It’s one thing to say that I should be taking better care of myself but, really, what’s the difference between sitting in front of my computer quietly editing an e-commerce book (which is how I spent most of my sick days in the last two weeks) and sitting in front of the TV or a video game taking a true break? They both prominently feature my butt in a chair and, as the former needs to get done anyway, why not use the time when I’m miserable anyway to do it and save the fun for when I can appreciate it?

Is there really some kind of mental difference between doing work and play even if you’re physically doing the same thing? What do you think? Is there a different between writing for fun and writing for work or is sitting still sitting no matter what you’re doing at the same time?