Taking Mommy Breaks

Back in June of 2020 I fell very ill. It was a difficult time. I spent weeks on self-appointed bed rest, which was extremely hard to do with a needy toddler. Thank God that my husband was and is still working from home. He was a big help. I must admit though, receiving his help was not easy for me.

I’m used to being superwoman in the home. I give my all to my son daily. At the time, I prepared all the meals and did about 75% of the cleaning/maintenance. I was also in charge of bath time and bedtime most nights. It was extremely exhausting but it made me feel accomplished, like a top tier mom/wife. Ha! The problem is that that level of output isn’t sustainable, especially without regular opportunities to recharge. Being sick forced me to pass off a lot of my daily tasks and made me realize that whether I work myself to the bone or not, life will still go on.

When I finally started feeling better I decided that I wasn’t going back to overworking myself. I had to release my need to control everything and allow my partner to help me. I’m still the primary chef  (because I love cooking) but my husband is now in charge of breakfast. In fact, he serves me breakfast in bed every day and keeps our son occupied for most of the morning until I’m ready to come downstairs and take over. We take turns with bath/bedtime and we’ve been working together to maintain the house so there isn’t a lot of cleaning to do by the weekend. And to top it off, I’ve committed to taking more mommy breaks.  Life has been so much better because of it!

Taking mommy breaks has allowed me to pick up my old hobby of vlogging again and I’ll soon be back to posting regularly on my Instagram. In the evenings after dinner I shut myself in my room for a while and quietly scroll through my social media or read a book. I used to give in to my sons crying tantrums and just take him along when I really wanted to go someplace by myself. Not anymore. It used to feel like I wasn’t free to do these things but I was. I was standing in my own way. I’m still working on that as I deal with the expectations, insecurities, learned behaviors from my own mom (who I’ve never seen take a break) and fears from childhood traumas that pushed me to overwork myself in the first place.

All in all, mommy breaks are so important. It looks different for each mama but get it in however you can! Momcation up next!!