You adore your kids, and you’ll love spending most of your time with them; however there comes a time when you need a little time to yourself. There’s no shame in wanting five minutes alone to spend doing whatever you see fit and taking a breather. Finding time to yourself as a parent can seem like an uphill climb, and especially during the summer holidays when your kids seem to have boundless energy from the second they wake up.
Finding time to yourself can take some practice, a lot of patience, and some ingenious ideas to keep them safely entertained. For more on how you can steal some time to yourself, continue reading to learn some helpful tips and tricks.
Keep Your Kids Busy In The Garden
Summer is the perfect time to play outside with your young family, as they can easily find ways of keeping themselves busy for hours. Football, stone painting, insect hunting, swing ball, a paddling pool, and chasing each other around can provide endless hours of fun and frolics.
Always ensure that your kids are supervised, especially around water, but being outside in the garden gives you ample time to lay back on a sun lounger, magazine or book in hand, and closing your eyes as long as your partner, or a friend or family member is keeping eyes on the kids.
Work Out In The Mornings
If you’re finding it somewhat of a challenge to find time to get your daily exercise in, then consider waking up early to complete a workout. However, this needn’t mean that you have to leave the house to get your sweat on, as you could simply lay out a mat in the living room or kitchen, for example.
When you don’t find time to do the activities you enjoy, you can feel sluggish, unmotivated and irritable, so make a real concentrated effort to wake up an hour earlier to practice some yoga, Pilates, or follow a high impact training video on YouTube. This is your time, so prepare by getting hold of some stylish gym wear from All Day Alba, making yourself a healthy smoothie, and starting the day with some of your favourite music.
Call A Babysitter
Don’t feel as though you can’t ask a family friend or a professional babysitter to entertain and look after your kids for the night. You and your partner still need time to yourselves, to enjoy a romantic meal together, to see a movie, and simply indulge in each other’s company. Ensure that the person taking care of your children is responsible, and enjoys a good rapport with your children. You should be able to let your hair down for at least one night each month, so schedule a date with your significant other, and call in a babysitter.
Stick To Your Routine
Your kids should have a bedtime routine, and so should you. Although evenings schedules don’t always go exactly to plan, you should try to fall into a healthy routine of saying goodnight to your kids and then winding down and completing your self-care rituals that keep you feeling on top of things. So, have a bath, light some candles, catch up of your favourite shows, and spend time with your partner.