Me Time!

By Bec,

Being a parent changes your priorities.  There is no doubt about it.  Your children now seem to come first.  But what about “me time”?  Parenting is a full-time job, and we can’t expect to be at our best if we don’t get a break.  I’ve been reading lots of parenting books lately, mainly to try and find a way to deal with Hunter’s behaviour.  But one which I really aligned with was Thriving! by Michael Gose.  He has a wealth of information on his Parenting Ideas website.  But one of his key principles is that as a parent we need to put ourselves first, our partners second and our children third. The idea being we need to look after ourselves before we can look after others. 

If you don't think you can go as far as putting yourself first (which we must admit, for a Mum this is hard), it's important to schedule in some regular "me time".  What do you like doing for yourself? 
My "me time" consists of going to the gym, reading and scrapbooking!  I try to get to the gym at least once a week - not fantastic but a start.  I work 4 days per week so can really only go evenings and weekends, and I do feel bad about leaving hubby with the kids on his own too often - he has worked a full day too!!  But I've been once this week - did a nice Body Pump class - and yep I felt so much better for it.

Like Victoria I have recently (in May) acquired a kindle.  I love love love my kindle for reading.  It's fantastic for reading in bed without too much light (I bought the cover with light) and fantastic for to and from work on the train (can stand, hold on with one hand and read and turn pages on my kindle with the other).  Because of the kindle my reading has doubled.  I've always been a big reader, loved doing the MS Read-a-thon as a kid.  But with the kindle I find I'm reading a page here and there when I have some spare time (like when waiting to cross the road in the city), and it goes everywhere with me so I'm always with a book!  I've read some great books lately, my favourites being The Girl with the Dragon tattoo, The Hunger Games, Learn me good and Sing you Home (my current one on the go).  Reading for me is a time to escape into another world!

And finally I enjoy scrapbooking. Each child has a "my first 12 months" album.  And now I'm onto the family 2010 album (so I'm a year behind...not too bad). I go once a month on a Friday night (tonight is the night!!!!) to a workshop.  It's usually the same group of people so it's a great social time and I get to be creative and put the photos in a recordable format.  I'm not the most creative person, but I'm recording our memories, enjoying doing it and the kids love looking at the albums.

What do you do for "me time"?