What me time? I'm a Mom.
I have always loved my own company. I say that not to sound vain, like I keep good company or anything, but rather I just really like my alone time. I am not the kind to get lonely or bored or someone who needs to be surrounded by people at all times to feel fulfilled. I am actually a very solitary being. Sure I love my friends and family and love to be around them but I also love to just be alone with my own thoughts too. I love "me time". I always have.
When I had my baby, "me time" changed somewhat (drastically!)
So before children, I enjoyed things like....*Long hot baths. Maybe with a glass of wine and the current novel I was reading at the time. Maybe a few candles, some light music in the background.*I enjoyed going to the beach and baking in the sun for hours, without worrying about things like UV rays, bluebottles or how many germs are in the sand. (This was also all done without getting a single piece of sand on any part of my body) *I enjoyed being impulsive, going to the movies on a whim, or to a concert without thinking about how loud it will be and how many drunk people will be tripping over me. *I used to enjoying getting drunk myself, (on the occasion) without a thought of waking up at 4am and how I would survive the next day with a rhino in my head and very little sleep under my belt.*Sometimes I would spend hours on simply doing my nails! Yip...you heard right, hours.
I enjoyed going to the beach and baking in the sun for hours, without worrying about things like UV rays, bluebottles or how many germs are in the sand.
I do still love to do all of the above things, so it's still "me time", just with a difference.
So with children, I now enjoy things like....*Short cold baths. Always with a slippery mini me wriggling and sliding all over the place, trying to grab everything she is not supposed to; like my razor, the shampoo, the plug. Always with a bath full of squeaky toys with some rock lullabies playing in the background.*I enjoy going to the beach and trying to remove sand from my daughters mouth for hours, while worrying about things like UV rays, bluebottles or how many germs are in the sand. (This is all done while managing to get every single piece of sand on the beach smeared all over my body, including in my bikini bottoms...how does this even happen?) This special me time now also last only a few hours before we have to leave due to a heat and exhaustion induced meltdown, for both baby and me. (mainly me)*I enjoy premeditating my every action now. I enjoy planing every last outing in great detail in order not to forget anything and be met with the inevitable disaster. Like leaving the house without a dummy, or dudu, or blankie or the right food for the day. (eeek!) Leaving the house is now done with such precision and planning, it can literally take hours just to get to the front door. We enjoy going to the movies in our lounge and falling asleep after the first 5 minutes. Or to a concert in the back yard with a milk drunk baby tripping all over us. *On the very rare, rare occasion I may enjoy getting the tiniest buzzed, while the husbster re-lives his youth, without a thought of waking up at 4am and how he will survive the next day with a rhino in his head and very little sleep under his belt. Inevitably, I will be up (no matter what my night held) at 4am dealing with our little rhino while he sleeps off last nights mistakes.*Sometimes I will spend hours just preparing my child meals. Trying to raise the healthiest, least fussy little human, while also trying to find and create meals she will actually keep in her mouth for longer than 2 seconds. *On the very, very rare occasion I still enjoy spending hours on simply doing my nails. (this is always after 7pm, when the mini me is fast asleep) And this usually results invery stylish, smudged, bedspread nails.
We enjoy going to the movies in our lounge and falling asleep after the first 5 minutes.
"Me time" is now a very, messy, chaotic "us time". And I would not change it for the world.
So my "me time" is actually no longer, I almost permanently have a little person attached to me, like an extra drooling, giggling appendage. There is not escaping this little shadow of mine. Even a pee break is not longer a one woman job, she must be right next to me watching me curiously with her big blue eyes. Work is the pretty much the only place of true solitude...and as I walk in there, each morning, I begin counting the seconds till I get to have my feisty, little cherub in my arms again. I feel a little naked without her next to me. So even though our lives have changed a huge deal, we still do the things we love, we still have our fun, just in a very different way.
So my me time is actually no longer, I almost permanently have a little person attached to me, like an extra drooling, giggling appendage.
(So while I am discreetly trying to get rid of the giant pile of sand in my bikini, (on a beach full of people) I am wiping the smear of cream cheese, sandwich drool off my thigh and analyzing my blotchy, uneven tan lines while pulling my tangled mass of hair into a messy bun (Mom glamour at its finest)....I look over at this ball of squishy delight, that is mine and she is shoveling the 10th handful of sand into her already full mouth, while trying grab the hubsters glass of beer and farting massive fart bubbles into her mini pool. I look at this little ball of snot and drool, fart and sand and I know I am truly the luckiest person in the history of the world to be stuck with this little human. To be able to call her mine! To have her look at me like she does, with this pure, unconditional, trusting love in her eyes. To see her face light up when she sees me smiling at her. Wow! She can take every single second of my "me time", she can have it all, because for the first time I never want to be alone, if it means being without her!
She can take every single second of my "me time", she can have it all, because for the first time I never want to be alone, if it means being without her!
"Mother[Muhth-er]
Noun
1. One person who does the work of twenty. For free.
(Also see: "masochist", "loony", "saint".)
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