The days are full, the list are long, and the responsibilities of being a mom can be daunting.
I remember the day so vividly….My husband was out of town for the week, I had several big deadlines at work and my parents were coming in town for the weekend. I had just dropped one kid off at school and had the one in the back seat. I thought to myself, “I don’t remember the last time I was alone with no responsibilities.” I teared up in the car just thinking about the pressure of being responsible for so much.
Just out of curiosity I googled around, as any resourceful mom would, and found the following statistics about moms and alone time. Here are a few highlights:
- The average working mothers puts in 98 hours each week
- If you were to pay a stay-at-home mom, she’d make nearly $115,000 due to the amount of overtime she puts in each week
- Most women get approximately an hour and seven minutes to themselves on a weekly basis. All the rest of the time is spent doing things for others.
All of these not so fun facts left me feeling a little disheartened. I need time in the week where I have zero responsibilities. Time where my phone doesn’t buzz asking me if someone still needs a bath, or an email needing something urgent that wouldn’t have been urgent two days ago, or a phone call from a parent asking me to explain medical terminology that I have to google to understand myself. (I do lots of googling in case you hadn’t picked up on that!)
So, for more than just an hour a week, I’m walking away from it all. I’m leaving my kids, and my phone, and my responsibilities behind. I have a very capable husband, excellent babysitters, and schools that are responsible for my children when I am not there. I don’t know what I’m going to do during this glorious time, but I’ve got to find some time in my life to think, to recharge, and just to sit down in one place without any interruptions. I’m committing to myself that it’s okay to take a break and not feel guilty about it. My guess is I’m going to come out on the other side of this a better, happier person for myself and my family.