Being a parent is hard work and it is easy to become drained and lose yourself in the job. Parents’ lives become centered on their children 24/7 and they forget to take care of themselves. One of the problems with this is you become so drained that you can no longer give your children the same quality of love and care that you want to give them.
When parents take care of themselves they are able to be more patient, understanding, kind, happy, and have more fun with their children. In other words they’re able to be better parents. So how do you take care of yourself? There are many ways to take care of yourself and everyone has different things that work for them. Here are 5 things that I like to do that work for me.
- Take time to relax.
- Give yourself a few minutes everyday to do something that relaxes you. For me, this is sometimes soaking in the bath during my kids nap time or after they’ve gone to bed at night. It could also be reading a good book or watching a TV show at night before I go to sleep. (Comedies are best to help me relax!) My brain needs this relaxing time to be able to cope with the stressful times.
- Have a night out with other adults.
- This is especially important if you are a stay at home mom or dad. You need time with adults and not just kids 24/7. Taking a night, once a week if possible, helps me remember how to talk to adults. LOL. Things I like to do for a night out are; go on a date with my husband, have a girls night with my mom and sisters, or go to dinner with some friends.
- Buy yourself a new outfit.
- I hate the feeling of having nothing nice to wear. It seems like all my clothes got dingy and worn out looking when my older two kids were young and I never felt like I looked very nice. So now going through it again with a baby, I make sure and buy myself something new to wear every once in a while so that I can feel nice. I’m not superficial. I know that who a person is on the inside is more important than what they are wearing. But it still makes me feel good and feel more self confident when I think I look nice on the outside too.
- Take time in the morning to get ready for the day.
- I love an occasional lazy day as much as the next person, but too many lazy days makes me feel emotionally like garbage. Even if I don’t have anything planned for the day, other than the constant housework, I still feel better after a warm shower, clean clothes and my hair fixed. (If you ask my mother, makeup should be on that list too.) Giving myself 15-20 minutes in the morning to get myself ready makes me feel so much better and ready to face the day.
- Make time for your hobbies.
- When I had my older kids, I didn’t do any of the things I loved for years. It wasn’t until I divorced their dad and had time alone that I started to do the things I loved again. It helped me rediscover myself. I learned the importance of making time for my hobbies and not just doing things for the kids all the time.
Don’t allow yourself to become drained and unable to be the best parent you can be. Whether it is the five things that work for me to take care of myself, or if it is something different for you, figure out what works best to take care of yourself and make plans to do it.
