You Need A 15 Minute Timeout

Today, I woke up feeling like….. An exhausted, zombie mom. No, not P. Diddy, even though some aspects of his life would be quite nice, well at least the financial ones. I am the proud mother of 2 girls. My first born is 9 years old. She is my helper, she talks like she has no breaths and is always so energetic it seems as if she comes equipped with batteries. My second daughter is my baby literally, she is only 2 months old and one of the main reasons why I feel like an exhausted, zombie mom. Last night, she just refused to go to sleep. She would give me false hope and close her eyes and pretend that she was asleep for 15 minutes, then randomly wake up with a loud cry and then laugh when I got up to put her cry silencer in her mouth again. I am convinced that she believes that I don’t need sleep, but her sweet precious smile just melts me and makes me forget that I have been sleep deprived ever since she was born. Being a mom, you can become stuck in a rut, and put all of your energy and focus towards your children, that you forget about the one person who is always there for them, yourself. Yes, our children are top priority and they require our special attention, but it’s also top priority to take care of yourself as well. As my mom has always said, if you don’t take care of yourself, who will? This is a serious question for moms to evaluate. It’s okay to have five minutes to ourselves. It’s not a sin if we spend money on what we like. We desperately need to incorporate self-care in our daily regimen or we could have a serious unnecessary breakdown. Trust me, it was hard at first, including daily self-care sessions, but it’s truly worth it. Even if it’s 10 minutes a day, you are worth every minute. In my posts, I will suggest a daily helpful tip or trick for self-care because, sis, we just need the break. So here is my first helpful tip: Give yourself a 15 minute timeout! My first 15 minute timeout was in the bathroom because if my kids saw me, one would cry for me and the other would talk so much that my own thoughts would go unheard. I told my significant other and my nine year old that I needed to use the bathroom, and no lies were told. You see, I did need to use the bathroom, to gather my thoughts, to breathe, reflect and feel like a human again. Moms have a reputation of giving so much that we are depleted at the end of the day, and that is ultimately destructive behavior, because if you overextend yourself and give everything you have both mentally and physically to your partner and children, what is left for yourself? Mama, give yourself that 15 minute timeout, because you are definitely worth it!