Claim Your Time

This post is is for all the stay-at-home moms and dads out there. (The relationship with picture will make sense towards end of the post).
Whether you are working from home, caring for your kids and managing the fort, homeschooling... or whatever your situation is…
Claim.your.time.
CLAIM.YOUR.TIME.
Whatever you spend that on.
It doesn’t have to be justified as productive. Or “important”.
If it’s important to YOU, that’s all that matters.
Leave. Walk around the block. Sit down with a book. Whatever it is that makes you feel recharged and like you’re getting a little break from your usual demands and roles.
Whatever connects you to a different part of you that needs to be connected to.
You spend the majority of your days at home, managing a million and other things.
Some days might be overwhelmingly full, some days might be overwhelmingly mundane and isolating.
There is no employer waiting for you to be at a certain place at a certain time.
Which can provide you with that extra role; that extra validation for a job well done, time spent outside of your home and without your kids.
YOU are your own employer. YOU manage your time and with that your self-care, mental health, sense of fulfilment and validation.
Find and create your windows.
Find a tribe that can help you find time (even half an hour here and there) for yourself.
Find what fills you up.
Claim.your.time.
Today, I ran for the woods (literally), after shopping with one of my kids for over 4 hours (anybody that knows me, knows I don’t do well with shopping if it exceeds about the hour mark).
I felt drained, done, toast.
When my husband casually mentioned that he had to still leave for work (unplanned) in several hours. I stopped, dropped and ran.
Gotta go. See you in a few hours.
Leave. Run for the woods or whatever floats your boat ;)
Claim.your.time.
It doesn’t make you a “less capable or enough” mom/dad or partner.
But, taking care of yourself will have the opposite effect.
** I feel like I have to put a disclaimer in, that of course working moms and dads need all of this too! I’m just talking form the perspective (and my experience) with the role of stay-at-home parent
. **