Making Time For Me

Do you ever forget that you are a parent? I don’t mean for a length of time as if you’ve lost your mind but I mean switch off, forget about the responsibilities you have?

This weekend was all about getting baby’s room ready and that involved stripping walls and painting etc.. On Saturday morning I took myself off to B&Q to get a few bits and bobs and left the girls at home with Mr F. I have them with me most of the time and so me time is very rare indeed. As I was driving along, singing at the top of my lungs to Justin Bieber and whatever else came of the radio, I totally forgot that I was a parent. Or maybe I didn’t forget as such, but it wasn’t who I was at that moment in time. I was just me.

Being on my own made me realise that I don’t spend enough time on my own, to be totally myself and do the things that bring me joy. I am not saying my family don’t bring me joy but as long as I am around them I become a wife or a mother, I am never just me. I have never been bothered by this fact and even now I wouldn’t care if I never got any me time, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t make the effort, right?

It doesn’t even have to be for long or to do anything interesting – obviously a ride to B&Q did the trick this time haha! But I do think I need to make the effort to do something on my own regularly. Now I realise that with a baby due in the next few months this isn’t going to be entirely possible but maybe it is now, more than ever, that I need to make the effort to get into the habit. Even making the switch from having showers to a nice long soak in the bath, although I’ll be honest I am not the biggest fan of baths. Maybe I could just stop getting the food shop delivered and go out to do it on my own. I don’t know…

All I know is this, singing at the top of my lungs, without having a little voice yelling ‘sheeeeeeeep!’ behind me, made me feel happy. I was able to switch off and quite honestly I could have been 18 years old driving to visit a friend – there was nothing around me to remind me of who I really was. Being able to re-centre yourself is good for your well-being I think and I need to do more of that.

What do you do for me time? Do you ever get to switch off or am I lusting after something that isn’t really possible?