Me time for moms

I think that “me time” is really important for mothers. I think most mothers would readily agree—in fact, I think that most mothers have so little downtime that we’re desperate for that one little minute we can claim as our own. And we’ll take it wherever we can get it.

Though it’s easy to look back and think that I haven’t really had any “me time” since my son was born, I know that isn’t the case. There was a while there where I got in the habit of getting up at 7, while Hayden suddenly began sleeping in until 8 or 9. I could get a jump start on work, I could write something great on MamaBlogga (well, as great as I get), I could read my favorite blogs, and not have to worry about my personal projects until Hayden went down for a nap.

And then he started waking up at 6:45.

When Hayden still took three naps, I had up to 5.5 hours to myself during the day—plenty of time to get lots of work done and spend time straightening up the house and doing things I wanted to do. Of course, as soon as I came to rely on this, Hayden stopped taking his third nap. After a while, two naps came to be more than adequate.

And then, of course, he was down to one, which has been whittled away until some days it’s not even enough to get all my work done. (Let’s not even discuss the normal state of disarray the house is in!)

But then there’s the other side of the coin—the special occasions where I get to go out (or stay home) without my family. And feel guilty or simply miss my family.

While I spend much of my time wishing for regular “me time,” I don’t know what I’d do if I took it!

Edited to add: as I read through your wonderful entries, I realized that “In my opinion, anything that helps you to feel recharged, happy and more or less ready to take the next onslaught of life’s challenges counts as ‘me time.'” This definition is much broader than what many of us think of—pampering, relaxation, etc. But this is what I’m looking for in “me time.”