When you first landed your first mommy job, I believe you felt so excited and eager to begin. To pour out all the love, care, and attention on your little one. As time went by, you must have realized that even though it’s one of the most wonderful jobs on earth, it can be equally tough to do a good job as a mother.
When I was a little girl, I played mommy roles a lot. I had dolls I took care of, braided their hair, made dresses for them, and took care of my dolls as my mom used to do for me and my siblings.
Now I have a “real baby” I know that motherhood isn’t a walk in the park. It isn’t just about the pictures you see on social media, with moms and their kids wearing matching outfits, or having picnics.
Motherhood is tough, and it involves a lot of hard work. Because of the workload of taking of the kids and the family, sadly, many women, neglect themselves, and with time, they begin to become a shadow of themselves.
Due to the busy schedules, things like making meals, buying groceries, keeping a clean home, laundry, teaching the kids, taking care of the home, come as a priority, and mom self-care is always pushed to last of the list.
No time for proper rest, for pampering ourselves, for doing those things we once used to do before kids came. Many moms cry in silence, they know they are losing their self, their identity, but they can’t seem to do anything.
They feel guilty, putting themselves on the priority list when there are “other important things” to do. Time to wake up dear mom, you can’t end up living like this, taking care of yourself is equally important as taking care of other people. I will be sharing some self-care ideas for moms, that you can draw inspiration from. Let’s see some below
1. You Don’t Have To Carry The Burden Alone
Share with others in most households, the load of taking care of kids, making meals, maintaining the house mostly rests on the shoulders of mum. You can change things by Including your partner in the process. Most partners will shy away if they are not invited.
So rather than carrying all the burden alone, ask your partner to help you feed the young ones while you bath, or help wash dishes, do laundry, or whatever he can help within the home. Also, your kids are not left out in the home duties. Remember it is a family with shared responsibilities.
Make the kids start doing simple chores around the home. As they grow older. They can begin to handle tasks like doing laundry, vacuuming the house, even going shopping with your supervision. When you share the burden you have more time for yourself.
2. Find Time To Pamper Yourself
It doesn’t have to be work, work, work, all through. Create time for yourself in your schedule by pampering yourself. Take relaxing baths, take long naps to recharge, take time to go sightseeing, or go to the pool.
Of course, spa and massage are not left out. They are one of the most common ways women relax. You can go swimming to relax your nerves, fix your nails, treat your skin, go for a show or any other performance that will make you have fun. If you don’t do all this once in a while, you will gradually lose yourself.
3. Exercise Regularly
You need to create time in your schedule for exercise. More than the fancy shoes and clothes and the fun things you can use to pamper yourself, exercise is a self-care idea for moms you should covet.
Take time every day or every other day of the week to visit the gym. Or you choose to exercise in your home. Do crunches, sit-ups, jogging, and other exercises, to boost your mood, make you fit and healthy.
4. Eat Right
Enough with the rushed meals you prepare to keep up with time. Make homemade meals that are delicious and healthy. Cut out the sodas, snacks, fries, and other sweets you take every time from your menu. You can also decide to eat out at your favorite restaurant. Italian or Chinese? It’s your choice to make.
5. Take Care Of Your Body
To treat yourself right, you need to take care of your body. It does most of the work after all, so it is super important. Have enough time for rest. Most mums are sleep deprived because of the unending tasks they have to complete. Sometimes it is wiser to keep it simple.
Avoid packing too much stuff on your to-do lists so that you can have time for regular rests. Eating a delicious and nutritious meal all the time is also very important.
Make your skin glow by moisturizing and giving it the required treatments. Wash your hairstyle so you look gorgeous. Proper body care is very important. The remnant of your time should be spent giving your body the attention it needs.
6. Goal Setting
What are your short-term and long-term goals? Do you have any? Do you have none? To be effective as a woman, you need a plan and you need to set goals both short and long-term goals so you know what you want to achieve in a time frame. If you haven’t been setting goals start right away.
Think through those things you wish to achieve and set them as their goals. Goal setting is a great motivation. It keeps you on track and makes you know that you are productive.
However, when setting goals, ensure you include those things that are realistic. It makes no sense putting something you know you can’t achieve for the period. Also, do not set too many goals because you want to be an achiever. You would only end up overstressed and that goes against what we want to achieve, which is self-care.
7. Make A Gratitude List
You may not have gotten to where you expect yet, but at least you are not where you used to be. So, be thankful for the little and great achievements.
Make a gratitude list. Constantly write down those things you are thankful for. Your family, your job, your friends, kids, partner, life, and health, whatever it is, pen it down. A gratitude lists make you focus on the positives rather than the negatives.
8. Go Shopping
Yes, shopping is an important self-care idea for moms that you can use to treat yourself to a nice time. Plan a day for it, save up for the day, and do shopping.
Or you may tell your partner to take you to buy that shoe or dress you have been admiring. I love shopping. It’s usually a time for me to relax and it boosts my mood.
There is this thrilling feeling I get when I see a lot of purchases that I have made and when I arrange my drawer with lots of clothes.
9. Go For Girls’ Time Out
Thinking of a special self-care idea for moms? Then, a time out with girls is one you won’t want to miss. Have an off from mummy’s duty and call the girls gang so you all can catch up and have fun.
You guys can plan the weekends or a day to keep up with the latest gist, do mani-pedi’s, go to the spa, go sightseeing and do any other fun things you always love doing.
10. Find A New Skill Or Hobby
Nothing beats that invigorating feeling you have when you find a skill you love and pour your heart into it. So bored your everyday life? Find something new and different to spice up your mood.
It could be knitting, making crafts, makeup, or skydiving. Pour your heart to and do what you love, you get to live meaningfully that way.
11. Be A Volunteer
Another way to give yourself a treat is when you volunteer to do something from your heart for people. The feeling that envelops you is more than the appreciation you get, and it helps you become a better you.
So volunteer today at a local shelter, pet center, orphanage, or anywhere you feel you can help. It shouldn’t be something that should take your time and make your home suffer though.
12. Daydream
Spend that warm cozy afternoon or the night when everyone is asleep and daydream awesome, wonderful experiences. Just think of anything, possible, impossible you are allowed to go as wide as your imagination can take you.
13. Forgive And Let Go
Yes, the wounds may hurt so deeply, but holding that person in your mind forever is not worth it. Maybe it’s time to forgive and let go. Do not let yourself be caged down by the person’s silly act. Instead of holding up the grudge, spend that time taking care of yourself.
14. Watch Your Favorite Show On TV
So you want to take care of yourself. How about watching those shows you so enjoy On TV? Or watching an interesting movie, they’ll keep you at the edge of your seat. Give it a trial and thank me later.
15. Avoid Toxic Associations
Do well to avoid those people who make you feel incapable and undermine your abilities? If they are your friends, get new friends that are positive and love you for who you are.
If they are your co-workers, make it clear to them that you ain’t going to continue with their toxic treatments and as much as possible, give them a distance. You wouldn’t be taking care of yourself if you accommodate toxic people in your life.
16. Say No
Yes, you care for yourself when you start creating boundaries and saying no to those things, you do not love doing. If you can create healthy boundaries, you are doing yourself a whole, lot of good.
17. Seize The Moment
When you have an opportunity to do something you love. Grab it and seize the moment. Life is short. You may never get such an opportunity ever again.
18. Read
A magazine, an interesting book, fiction, romance, any genre you love. Reading is one of the great ways to unwind and treat yourself.
19. Go Goofy
Be a child again and create those fun childhood memories by doing those “silly things” kids do. Go to the beach and play in the sand, make sandcastles with your kids.
Dance and sing in the bathroom at the top of your voice. Roll in the snow, paint yourself, draw a stick figure, and do those crazy things with your kids and your partner.
20. Show Kindness
You can make yourself happy. When you make others happy. You do this by lending a helping hand here and there. Make it something you are intentional about.
Try to show kindness to people. Anytime you have the opportunity to. Watch this attitude for a week or month, you see yourself becoming happier and you feel freer. This is a perfect self-care idea for mums, that any mom should covet.
As we wrap up, in case you feel so nervous, and guilty to try out these moms self-care ideas, look below at some reasons why self-care is super important:
- When you care for others, it is natural to want to be cared for also. And if you don’t receive such care, resentment starts building in.
- You may become unproductive, your life gets boring, and because you do not have time to live your life and do things you enjoy doing, you lack motivation.
- You won’t be in the best place to take care of your kids, because in the long run, you will constantly feel stressed, and this makes you cranky, angry, and pissed off by little things. Of course, it results in yelling and shouting.
- Burn out: Chances are that you will start getting burnt out when you do not prioritize your care and if it gets worse life may start losing meaning for you. You will become a hollow woman who doesn’t find value and meaning in life.
- Trust me, your kids won’t love you more because you focus solely on them. But when you strike in balance with self-care and childcare you become a great mom. No kid would want a mum that is looking stressed and haggard, cranky, and always complaining.
Save this for later mama!
