The last two weeks have been a blur from articles, chores, back-to-school tasks and crashing into bed late at night just to get back up early in the morning to start again. I’m exhausted and I haven’t worked out in two weeks. As I sat down to work on another article earlier this week, I stopped and looked around. My house was (and still is) a wreck, I had dinner to make, laundry to fold and bills to pay. I was dressed in sweats, with my hair jammed on the top of my head in a knot because I don’t have time to do anything else. I haven’t been to the gym in two weeks and at this point I’m feeling pretty cruddy.
Suddenly it hit me. As I’m watching my youngest ride around the apartment on her roller skates (oh yes, you read that right. Sorry neighbors) it hit me. I matter too. My kids and husband, my job, our home and our bills are all important. But so am I. I don’t know when I stopped mattering to myself. It’s like slowly my health and the way I feel about myself took a backseat.
How am I supposed to teach my kids to love themselves and treat themselves with respect if I can’t do it myself? So, I put my article on hold, jumped in the shower and put on actual clothes. I took an extra 20 minutes to do something cute to my hair and put on a little makeup. It made a huge difference. It may be that I’ve been binging on What Not to Wear episodes when I can, but I realized if I can’t even be bothered to help myself feel good, I’ve got no one to blame but myself when I hate my body or go to bed feeling completely worthless.
As a mom it’s really easy to get caught up in making sure everything is right for everyone else. When you’re a working mom trying to be a stay-at-home mom too, it gets really tricky. There are a million people to please, making yourself happy doesn’t seem very important. But, it is. It’s important to your mental health to feel good about yourself. It’s important to those little ones you are teaching and influencing. It’s important to the health of your marriage and your work relationships. If you don’t take time for yourself, at some point you are going to lose it. And it will be epic, just ask my husband.
I don’t have time to take hours a week for myself. But, I can find time every week to make sure I’m putting myself at the top of my to-do list. I have articles to write, but I also have an appointment with the treadmill. So, we’ll probably be living out of laundry baskets for another week, but at least I’ll be making time for myself.
How to you take time for yourself?
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