Self Care

When you are a mom you hear the term "self care" a lot. Basically many moms don't take care of themselves because they are too busy caring for others.  When you are married you still can struggle with self care, I know I did, sometimes because of mom-guilt, sometimes because my ex wasn't exactly helpful or encouraging of my time.  I mean-he would tell me to take time to myself, but during that time he wouldn't do what I would be doing, so often if I took time I came back to all the work that needed to be done from that time on top of everything else I needed to do.

As a single working mom, self care is even harder.  Sometimes I can do something for myself on a visitation weekend, like lunch with a friend or a nap, but more often than not I use that time to catch up of house repairs, work, cleaning, laundry, etc.  As a single mom, self care is really important because you get burnt out quickly.  I never even have one night when my kids aren't home, so I can never just sleep until I wake, or go out to all hours, or go away for a night or two, and those are what single moms need to recharge.  So I try to fit self care in when I can.  I go upstairs some nights when the little kids go to bed and do a face mask and text friends.  Some visitation weekends I force myself to ignore the list of tasks and lay in bed with Thai food and a good movie.  Someday I will have more time alone than I ever could want, probably because I also will never get to date, but that is a post for another day.