As Mother’s Day comes closer, us mothers start making requests to our partners- pedicures, house clean, breakfast in bed…. At first for Mother’s Day I wanted to spend every minute with my family– have a nice meal, spend time in the sun, drink a coffee, go for a walk etc. We did this a few years and then I asked for something different. I asked for (gasp) time alone. This was difficult a difficult request for me. I questioned my decision a lot “Doesn’t a good mom want to be with her family on Mother’s Day?” “Isn’t Mother’s Day about family time?” It took me some time to realize that Mother’s Day was about celebrating Mothers and there is no right or wrong way to do it. It can be individual.
Society makes us mother’s feel like we can do it all. Mother’s can work, take care of the family, make dinner, clean the house all while looking stylish right? Pinterest has all the ideas for meals, crafts and hairstyles and Facebook makes all families appear high functioning all the time right? Maybe this was how it once was, maybe this is how we were taught, maybe this is our intention but this can NOT be reality. Especially without self care.
Taking care of ourselves as mothers and woman shouldn’t be considered selfish. We can’t expect to take care of our children if we cant take care of ourselves. I preach self care to all my parenting groups, to all my mom friends, to all my families I work with. Self care needs to be implemented and planned in our loves in order for us to be a helpful person in our families. It refreshes and recharges people. It should be a requirement of parenting.
When talking about Mother’s Day with Erin and Allison (the birth doula collective) We talked in length about the challenges of being a mom– a work at home mom, a stay at home mom, a work away from home mom. We all come with our lists of pros and cons. Self care is equally as important no matter what “type” of mom you are.
Self care mama is a list of 12 ideas that Erin made for Mother’s Day. We encourage each mother reading this to take a minute for yourself and CARE for you. Please take self care into consideration, please share with your friends, your mom, your neighbors.
