If you are a parent, then you are probably already well aware of the huge importance of having some downtime from time to time. This is something that can make a huge difference to your life and help you immeasurably, and it’s important from time to time to take some time away from your kids and just look after yourself. Of course, you may be thinking that this is a pipe dream, that it is somewhat impossible to achieve this. However, it’s perfectly possible, if difficult, and it’s something that you can always work towards.
In this post, we are going to take a look at some of the ways to find downtime as well as how you might want to spend it in order to ensure you are properly relaxing and looking after yourself. It’s amazing what this can do for you, so all of the following is going to be really worth bearing in mind if you are keen to try and make this a reality for yourself. Let’s take a look at what you might want to think about here.
Getting Over The Guilt
One of the main things stopping a lot of parents finding suitable downtime is actually a sense of guilt that they have somewhere in the background. There can often be this sense that you shouldn’t be trying to find time away from your kids, that it is somehow shameful to do so, and once you have that idea it can be a really tricky thing to overcome. However, it’s important that you do, otherwise you might struggle to really look after yourself in the right way, and that can be a hugely damaging thing in general.
So getting over the guilt of wanting to have time away from your kids is tricky and it can take time, but it’s absolutely worthwhile and something that you should be aiming to try and do as best as you can. Once you are over the guilt, you’ll find that you can then have a lot more time to yourself, and that you are so much more likely to actually be able to be a more effective parent. So the irony is that overcoming this guilt feeling will give you less to feel guilty about with regard to your kids anyway.
If you are able to find people to help look after your kids, then that is obviously going to make it easier to get that downtime in the first place. So this is something that you need to make sure you are thinking about if you want to try and get that downtime as soon as possible. If you can get help then you should be able to find a lot more time and a lot more often, and this is going to make the experience of being a parent considerably easier for you to enjoy as well.
The kind of help you get can vary a lot, but there are lots of people that you can ask and who are likely to be able to help you out here. You should certainly look to family and friends first, especially anyone who has made it clear that they are going to be able to help or are keen to help at some point or another. And if you are doing all you can to make use of that, before you know it you might have more help than you even need.
Once you have a few people keen to help, you can rotate through them and you will probably find that there is always someone to call on when you need it. You can of course also pay babysitters and the like to help for an evening. So there are options to be had and you should certainly bear that in mind when you are looking for this kind of downtime and trying to be a better parent at the same time.
Meditation
If you are keen to feel that you have a little more time, but also that you are making use of that time as effective downtime, you might want to consider meditation. This is a wonderful thing to do when it comes to trying to look after yourself a little better and feel as though you really do have some significant downtime going on, and it’s the kind of thing that you should absolutely think about making use of if you are not already doing so.
Building up a habit of meditating regularly could really make a world of difference to you mentally and to your life, and you will find that you are going to have so much more headspace once you are doing this. There are lots of different kinds of meditation, and it’s entirely up to you what kind you do, but as long as you are doing it in some way you’re probably going to find that it makes a world of difference to your life.
So take up meditation and try to aim for this next time you feel that you are not making use of your downtime. You might be surprised at how much it can help you, and it’s one of those things that you are going to want to think about for sure. It’s really important to make sure that you bear this in mind and it’s something that is going to be a great activity to have to keep yourself calm.
Learning To Relax
A lot of parents find that they really do need to spend some time learning to relax a little, especially if it has been a while since you had any time off at all. At first you might not even know what to do with yourself, and you might find that you are going to struggle to keep things going so much that you don’t know what to do in order to relax fully. So if you are keen to do this, you should make sure that you are thinking about some of the ways you can genuinely and fully relax, so that you can make use of these as appropriate.
Relaxing can be anything that you enjoy and which enables you to unwind. It could be a walk in the woods, playing solitaire, strumming a guitar, or whatever else you like. So you should make sure that you are making full use of whatever it is that you enjoy to really and genuinely relax. If you can do that, you will find that your downtime as a parent is going to be so much more valuable and that you will get a lot more out of it, helping you to feel so much better in yourself as a result.
Carving Out Time
Time very quickly becomes a precious resource when you are a parent, and you’ll find that you need to try and carve out some time a little if you are going to be able to have more downtime. That can be really tricky to do, but soon enough you’ll become aware of some of the ways in which you can hope to find time in your daily life which you are going to be able to make use of, and this is something that you can definitely think about.
If you can do that right, you’re going to have a lot more time to yourself as required, and that will work towards making you a more present parent.
