Finding Balance

I never could have imagined that being a stay at home mom would be this trying on my emotions. I'm quite positive that I had the wrong mentality going into this. I knew two things. I was not ready to leave my sweet Bodhi and we needed to save money on childcare - two children under 5 is pricey even working in the preschool field.

Sure, I would be doing all the household things I was doing before, like laundry and cleaning, but now I would have so much time to do it since I wasn't gone 10 hours a day. I thought my house would always be clean. Boy was I wrong.

I forgot to factor in having an infant attached, to eat and just snuggle mommy, multiple times a day, or picking up the toys that are thrown all over the living room 400 times every hour.

I forgot to factor in traveling to and from Keegan's school twice a day or the extra time it takes to get ready to leave the house with an infant.

I forgot to factor in the extra time the grocery store would now take, because Bodhi is pulling something down or throwing it out of the cart and Gavin wants this or that - from every aisle.

While I forgot to factor in all of these things -  I also failed to allot time for myself. I failed to factor in the little bit of me time that came with going to work everyday or the occasional shopping trip alone. I didn't realize how important having 15 minutes alone or getting out of this house was for my sanity.

While I spend my days doing my mommy and wifey tasks - I now take 30 minutes of Bodhi's nap time to do something I want to do. This may include Youtubing, window shopping online, planning, my nails, a nap - or whatever floats my boat. Also, we spend one morning a week at our library for 'Baby & Me' and I spend way too much time aimlessly walking around Target just to get out of the house.

Anyway, the point of this post is to remind stay at home & work at home parents or spouses alike to make sure that you take time for yourself and find the balance to keep your sanity. Otherwise, you will most definitely go stir crazy!

Hugs!