Don't even think about saying you are going to take some time for your self as a mom because someone or something WILL sabotage it...trust me, this is truth. You would think I would be the queen of self care....don't get me wrong in my house I am the queen of a lot of things, but self care ain't one of them. Growing up my dad loved reading self help books and sharing his insight with me all the while I moaned, "Dad stop, seriously, this is sooo boring...." and "seriously Dad, I'm trying to watch Days of Our Lives I don't care what Gandhi says" and "Dad, I do not want to meditate to bells and chimes" and last but not least "Dad!! I do not want to drink that weird stinky mushroom broth that's been sitting on the windowsill for weeks because it will make me healthy". One of my favorite BAD memories is when he made me do some fasting crap only drinking saline solution and then we ran out of toilet paper after the "healthy effects" aka diarrhea kicked in!! Soooo, I should be a freaking pro at self care with that beginning....
As a mom we not only do for our kids non stop, but we think for them and about them non stop too. Somewhere in the chaos of raising kids you totally lose yourself...it's this crazy phenomenon that ALL mom's experience. Whether you are a single mom, married mom, working mom, stay at home mom, foster mom...whatever kind of mom, this WILL happen to you. Even if we tell ourselves and each other we need to take care of ourselves first, you know the 'ole put the oxygen mask on yourself first saying, we still struggle with this! We know we should do it, but honestly how the heck are we supposed to actually make it happen!? Even if someone tells me hey I've got your kids go do something for you....I am like a deer in the headlights...um...I don't know what to do....I mean I have flipping dreamed about this moment and now I'm like...well....I guess I could go to Target...or something. What the heck! I know what I should do, but I can't do it! Now that my kids are in school I've got some time to do self care and I do fit a yoga class in every week now and go to lunch with a girlfriend once in awhile, but I still honestly am terrible at actually taking care of myself or even knowing what makes me feel happy and peaceful or even fulfilled while I'm by myself. So, the other day I got a pedicure which is a no brainer for self care...nice, but it's something I do when I need to because my heels look like something out of a horror movie, you know it's nothing really different, BUT then I got this crazy idea.... I thought a frozen yogurt sounds good...that awesome birthday cake flavor or whatever it is with some chocolate mixed in. And I thought Jaxon would like to do that after school maybe. Then I got another crazy idea...what if I just went in there and ordered myself a frozen yogurt in peace and quiet, no fighting with Jaxon on pulling the handle or worrying about my kids getting nuts mixed in with their topping and going to the ER. Just me, all by myself doing something I want, not what my kids want. Noooo, that's just too crazy! So I did it and you know what...I felt super weird actually and then I had this moment where I was like wow, I bet people do things like this all the time for THEMSELVES...seriously that's just weird. But, it felt amazing and I realized I need to do more little things like that, for JUST ME!
My goal is to find those things that make ME happy and simply enjoy those things and those moments. You can read all the blogs and articles and self help books in the world about what you should do to relax and be mindful and healthy (and honestly do those people even have kids? I can't even take a crap by myself let alone meditate when I need to), but as a mom it's very hard to actually do it...it's like we have almost forgotten how! It's going to take effort and some soul searching, but honestly I do believe at least sometimes taking care of ourselves will actually make us better mom's in the long run even if we have to fight through the mom-guilt to make it happen. My hope for me and you is that we can take a breath and practice some mommy self care and as we practice we might even get better at it. Have a beautiful day everyone and keep on loving yourselves mommas, it's a good example for your kiddos! ❤️
Comments
Post a Comment