How To Maintain Your Sanity with Self Care
Moms, by the time some of you would have read this, we would have survived week 1! [YAYYYYY US} I will be honest. I have not been in a great place mentally rationalizing being a working mom and a home school teacher. Especially working – teacher – mom to a 7 and 9 year old that are not necessarily able or desire to activate in self-directed learning. I have made a commitment to myself and to them to create space in my busy workday so that they are getting some daily instruction while balancing not falling behind in my own work. It is going to be a perfectly imperfect experience that may not be filled with exciting arts and crafts projects but also not letting the TV watch them for me.
But’s let get to important stuff… how we maintain our sanity and protect our mental health
The reality of this temporary new normal is definitely starting to sink in with me and if there was ever a more critical time to be intentional about protecting your peace and practicing self care, it is now. If not, I am 100% for sure I am going to go nuts with my husband and children being the likely victims. Let’s save ourselves and our families from our wrath by commiting to the following four things:
Create a Schedule: Yes, we have all posted these cute little schedules for our children. I am talking about a schedule for you! What can you commit to at the beginning of the day before the house wakes up and the end of the day after the kids go down. My goal: a 30 minute workout to get the endorphins moving and at minimum a hot cup of sleepy time tea at night.
Make It A Daily Intention: It is not unreasonable to make a commitment for a daily mommy break. It can happen but we have to be intentional about making it happen by any means necessary. You are spending the entire day with your kids AND your significant other. You deserve it!
Find an Accountability Partner: Find another mom that you can check in with daily to ensure you are both taking a moment for self care. It’s a lot of us out there struggling. Do a self care virtual wellness check with your friends. Don’t let your mommy-friends have the “blahs” for too long about this new reality because it is going to be like this for a while. Its not good for anyones mental health.
Have Grace With Yourself: Say it with me “I need to have grace with myself”. We are perfectly imperfect moms. It is unreasonable to have any expectations that you will get this new reality right everyday. Who cares if they don’t have a new arts and crafts project every day or even ever week. It will not be the end of the world if a work call gets in the way of a “home schooling” hour and they do one hour instead of two. We are doing the best we can.
If you are feeling a little bit inspired about the prospects of some daily self care, here are 15 at home mommy break ideas that you can rotate through over the next 30 days:
Here is the silver lining of being at home: we don’t have to save laundry for the weekends, we can start dinner while on a conference call, and we don’t have to experience the domino effect of running late to get kids and therefore running late to get home.
Remember, our self-care matters! We are worth it! Leave me a comment to let me know how you are maintaining your sanity with self care while being at home with the kids.