Self Care For Moms: Why Looking After You Is So Important…

by | Jul 16, 2022 | Solid Tips | 0 comments

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Self Care Ideas/Tips For Moms: It is in a mom’s job descrip­tion that she does every­thing for every­one. It is their duty (and their plea­sure!) to see to it that their fam­i­lies are tend­ed to in every way. Whether it’s bring­ing home a good salary to pay month­ly expens­es or being a stay-at-home mom full-time, moth­ers do every­thing from A to Z to ensure their kids are safe, secure and hap­py. There is no such thing as vaca­tion time when it comes to motherhood. That’s why it’s so easy for moms to neglect their own needs. There are always so many tasks to take care of, so many things to do to keep the home fires burn­ing, it’s easy to let self-care slide. Many women per­ceive self-care as self-indul­gent, but that’s a mis­guid­ed notion. When moms get their bat­ter­ies recharged when they feel com­pe­tent and ready to tack­le a new day, every­one ben­e­fits. Self-care means that once you, mom, are ener­getic, relaxed and hap­py, you are ready to under­take the end­less chal­lenges of being a mom and a spouse. And self-care does not have to cost mon­ey! There is a mis­con­cep­tion out there that self-care is a priv­i­lege of the well-of, the women who can finan­cial­ly man­age hir­ing a house­keep­er, a nan­ny, or both. Noth­ing could be fur­ther from the truth! There are plen­ty of ways to prac­tice self-care that cost lit­tle or no mon­ey. But the ben­e­fits to moms and their fam­i­lies are tru­ly priceless. In this post, we define self-care cor­rect­ly and offer sug­ges­tions for you about prac­tis­ing it reg­u­lar­ly. Think of self-care as an invest­ment in your (and your fam­i­ly’s) hap­pi­ness and well-being. Don’t let feel­ings of guilt sneak up on you when you take time just for your­self to make your­self calmer, hap­pi­er and capa­ble of han­dling any and all issues that crop up every day.

Self-care: How To Define It?

As we said, self-care does not mean spend­ing a small for­tune going to a spa for a mani-pedi three times a week. Self-care means pay­ing atten­tion to your emo­tion­al, phys­i­cal, and men­tal health. You may have thought of burnout as some­thing that hap­pens only to over­worked, exhaust­ed career women, but it can hap­pen just as eas­i­ly to full-time moms. Prac­tis­ing self-care helps avoid it. That means tak­ing inven­to­ry of the things that are lack­ing, things that are hold­ing you back or mak­ing you unhap­py. For exam­ple: let’s say your boss has been insist­ing you to put in extra hours at the office, and you’ve oblig­ed. But doing so means you’re miss­ing fam­i­ly din­ners, and every­one is unhap­py about that. Self-care kicks in when you take time to ana­lyze the prob­lem and weigh pos­si­ble solutions. If you’re a stay-at-home mom, here’s an exam­ple you may relate to. As an ener­getic par­tic­i­pant in your chil­dren’s lives out­side the home, you love to vol­un­teer. Maybe it’s with the local par­ent-teacher asso­ci­a­tion, or maybe you coach a sports team at their school, or maybe you do both. You also help an elder­ly neigh­bour who can’t gro­cery shop for them­selves any­more; you tend a big gar­den in the back­yard and grow your fam­i­ly’s fruits and veg­eta­bles, and of course, you sched­ule all their activ­i­ties. And when you come down with a cold or minor tum­my bug, you just bar­rel through and do it all even when you’re under the weather. That kind of intense sched­ule, with no spare time just for you, is a sure-fire path to burnout. Prac­tis­ing self-care helps you rec­og­nize when you’re over­do­ing it. Your body and mind send sig­nals that say, “slow down!” And whether you leave the fam­i­ly to watch a movie with­out you while you hit the gym, or you order take-out and head to a near­by park to watch the waves along the river’s edge, you’ll feel bet­ter for tak­ing a “time out” all by yourself. While bal­anc­ing the demands of your career, doing what is best for you is prac­tis­ing self-care! By pay­ing atten­tion to a prob­lem that is mak­ing you – and, by exten­sion, your fam­i­ly – unhap­py, prac­tis­ing self-care in its truest sense.

Self care Ideas At Little Or No Cost

We promised to give you some sug­ges­tions for this, so read on!

- Gather Your Friends For Coffee

self care ideas for moms Some­times there is no greater way to feel bet­ter than by shar­ing your issues with oth­ers who are in sim­i­lar cir­cum­stances. Sit down on a friend’s front porch and give your­self license to vent. Let­ting all your frus­tra­tions come out is a great way to dif­fuse them. And, of course, lend an ear to her, too. We guar­an­tee you’ll both end the time spent togeth­er feel­ing lighter. There is no greater ton­ic for prob­lems we think are insur­mount­able than know­ing some­one else is expe­ri­enc­ing them as well. And your friend, or friends, may offer solu­tions that have not occurred to you.

- Exercise Any Way You Can

Whether you do an online class in yoga at home, while the baby is nap­ping, or you head out to the gym, exer­cise is one of the best forms of self-care there is. Even a vig­or­ous walk works wonders. Sit­ting still, stew­ing about your pri­vate annoy­ances and griev­ances, is nev­er healthy. Find at least 30 min­utes every day to take care of your body. As the old say­ing goes, take care of your body, and it will help take care of your heart, mind and soul.

- Turn Off Your Devices For a While

This is a big ask, we know. But some­times, not being avail­able for an hour or two is incred­i­bly calm­ing and restora­tive. Tell your spouse (or sit­ter) that you will be unavail­able between, let’s say, two and three o’clock in the after­noon. Have all school calls (if any are expect­ed) redirected. As long as there is anoth­er con­tact num­ber for your chil­dren in case of an emer­gency, you can relax know­ing they are safe. And not check­ing your phone and social media obses­sive­ly for a while helps low­er your blood pres­sure and qui­et your mind. You’ll be sur­prised at just how ter­rif­ic this feels.

- Postpone Doing Extra Work Until Tomorrow

We aren’t talk­ing about pro­cras­ti­na­tion. All we’re sug­gest­ing is that if you brought a file home from the office intend­ing to get it done tonight, stop! Get up extra ear­ly and do it tomor­row if it’s tru­ly press­ing. If not, let it wait until you’re back at the office tomor­row. Instead, watch a movie, or read a book – any­thing that allows you to unwind and do noth­ing for an hour or two. Have a mug of calm­ing, herbal tea. Close your eyes and imag­ine all the good things in your life. Med­i­tate on them. Remind your­self how lucky you are. Com­par­ing your­self to some­one who is gen­uine­ly suf­fer­ing – a mom whose child is seri­ous­ly ill, for exam­ple – is a great way to keep the size of your prob­lems in perspective. You don’t have to pre­tend noth­ing in your world is amiss – that isn’t healthy either. But know­ing you are for­tu­nate, that vir­tu­al­ly all the prob­lems you’re fac­ing can be solved with imag­i­na­tion and ded­i­ca­tion, is the key to under­stand­ing how for­tu­nate you real­ly are.

- Treat Yourself To a Salon Experience

This self-care may not be free, but it’s def­i­nite­ly worth it. Make an appoint­ment with your styl­ist and get a hair­cut. Have a pedi­cure done by your neigh­bour­hood estheti­cian. This is not about vanity! Look­ing good makes you feel good, and your appear­ance is impor­tant to your self-esteem. It does cost a lit­tle, we know, but the fee is small com­pared to a bout of retail ther­a­py that dents your cred­it card and makes you feel guilty. And we all know some­one who uses retail ther­a­py to avoid fac­ing her issues, don’t we? Self-care helps avoid those traps, and small changes in an appear­ance last for weeks. 

Final Thoughts

Self-care for moms is real­ly about care for the entire fam­i­ly, for every­one’s health and well-being. A lot is demand­ed of moth­ers, and you need to be up for the challenges. Prac­tis­ing self-care, and know­ing when and why you need to stop to recharge, is cru­cial not only for your san­i­ty. It’s cru­cial for all the rela­tion­ships in your life, whether they are with those folks at home, at the office or in the com­mu­ni­ty. Tak­ing care of your­self means you will be ready and eager to take care of every­one else. And that, in a nut­shell, is what moms have been doing since time immemorial.

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