We’ve all heard it before. You need to take care of yourself if you want to take care of others. This is especially true for parents. We stretch ourselves very thin. To be patient, kind, and loving parents, we need to treat ourselves with patience, kindness, and love. In the words of Donna Meagle and Tom Haverford: Treat yo'self!
If I lived in my fantasy world, I would have a maid and a cook. I would get massages and pedicures weekly. I would ride horses, take vacations, and have a personal trainer. If that is the world you live in, congratulations. No need to read further.
Here are a few ideas for the rest of us:
1. Hot showers. Little kids don’t let us take a luxurious bubble bath. Usually, I’m in and out of the shower within 3 minutes because there is so much to do. And because kids are little monsters. I have found, however, that if I slow myself down and give myself an extra minute in the shower, I feel a LOT more relaxed.
2. Home pedicures. I like to do this once a month. No one likes crusty feet. Actually, feet in general gross me out, but that’s a tangent I won’t go on about here. I start with an exfoliating foot peel. Just pop those gooey socks on for an hour and chill with a glass of wine and Netflix. Baby Foot is a great product, but I use the generic Bealuz because I’m cheap.
After that, take your extra-minute-long shower, get into your comfiest pajamas, and break out the nail polish! Don’t worry if you paint your nails like a toddler. Feet stay pretty far away from faces anyway.
3. Lotion. I tend to skip the little things when I’m in a rush. Using lotion is one of them. It’s so silly because I keep right there in the bathroom and in my bedroom, but I am always “too busy” for it. So when I feel stressed, it is a good time to hydrate my skin and take a breather. I’m a huge fan of coconut things, so sometimes I just throw on straight up coconut oil. But you do you, boo-boo!
As a single mom, I don’t have anyone to put lotion on by back. If you’ve ever worn a bra (hint 90% of my readers), you know it gets pretty itchy back there. I used to use a spatula to get the lotion in the middle of my back. Sounds gross, but I promise I washed it! Then, I decided to invent a product to apply lotion to the middle of my back. I looked into patenting and designing. Then, I decided maybe I should look and see if this already exists. And it does! I ordered this bad boy and stopped researching patents.
This post is getting too long. I’ll share a few more gems with you in another post. Leave a comment below if you have more self-care tips!
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