Kids. Multiple! As in more than one! And to think that just a couple of years ago, I only had one kid keeping me up at night. Now I have two. Don’t get me wrong, I love my little minions and wouldn’t trade them for the world. But this year I did ask Santa for eight solid hours of uninterrupted sleep. I’m still waiting. All jokes aside, sometimes it can be challenging to take care of yourself when you have kids. My kids are my world and more often than not, I forget that I need to take care of myself too. Today I’m sharing some of the simple things I do to take care of myself.
Simple Ways To Care For Yourself When You Have Kids
As a parent, it is so important to make sure you are taking good care of yourself! It doesn’t have to be a big event (although a spa day would be so lovely right about now). These are simple things you can start doing right now!
-
Eat healthy snacks!
Taking care of yourself can be as simple as making sure you eat well. Even though I’m home all day with the toddler, I tend to forget to feed myself. Yup, Jazzy is fed and happy, and it’s 5 pm, and I’m like “did I even eat today?!” Did you know that eating fresh fruits lowers your risk of many diseases, including heart disease and high blood pressure? Get a nice big bowl of fresh fruits and share it with the toddler. Chances are if they see you eating fresh fruits they will want to eat some too! It’s a win-win! I also love snacking on homemade popcorn.
-
Sneak in some downtime!
Sometimes all we want is 5 minutes to ourselves. I’ve never been one to hide in the bathroom for some downtime. If I look too “relaxed” she wants to get in my space. My trick to getting some downtime is when she’s watching PAW Patrol. I can get about 23 minutes of quiet time when she gets into it lol
-
Set a “realistic” bedtime for yourself.
We all know how important it is for kids to have a bedtime. But what about us?! We need sleep too! The reality is, I get about 4 hours of sleep on any given night. Since Jazzy doesn’t really nap during the day, the work that I can do is very limited until bedtime. No matter, you should try to set a bedtime for yourself. I swear to you, my daughter knows it when I’m tired and cranky. She becomes extra clingy! With the holidays, I was able to take a few days off the blog, and I was able to go to bed before 1 am (twice this week!!).
Bonus tip: Don’t complicate things!
I have sinus issues all year long, but during the winter I constantly have a runny nose. One thing I always have around are tissues. Kleenex kills 99.9% of cold and flu viruses in the tissue. So whatever I’m dealing with, I don’t have to worry about spreading it to the whole house. I usually pick some up at my local grocery store but when it’s -20 outside, the last thing I want to do is haul the kids to the store with me. Walmart‘s free 2-day shipping (on orders $35+) is a lifesaver! I simply place my order online and have the option to either pick it up (pass lol) or have them deliver it to my door (yes, please!). How simple is that!?
You can save a lot of time stocking up on your everyday purchases with the Walmart 2 day shipping service.
[Tweet “Simple Ways To Care For Yourself When You Have Kids #TakeCareWithKleenex https://ooh.li/8d8d7c8”]
There you have it guys, my simple ways to care for yourself when you have kids. Do you have some tips to share?
Be sure to subscribe to my blog for an update when a new post is live!
I love these ideas because most of us don’t make enough time to care for ourselves when we are parents. It’s important to remember that we need care too.
It’s so important to care for ourselves. I keep telling myself that if I’m not at my best I can’t be the best for those I love. This post is a great reminder of that.
I am guilty of not taking enough care of myself most of the time. I try to start my day with some quiet time in the morning with my coffee to just clear my mind and start fresh,.
I agree on the looking too relaxed part. It’s like as soon as they notice I’m not particularly busy, they are all up in my space! Great tips!
It’s really important that moms take good care of themselves too! Love all your tips especially getting some much needed downtime. A day off or even a couple of hours off is really going to make you feel refreshed!
We definitely need to take care of ourselves when we have kids! They need us to take care of them when they’re sick. These are great ways to take care of yourself.
Walmart and Amazon have been lifesavers when I’m too busy to get out and shop! Taking time for yourself is always good for mental health!
Finding time for ourselves with little ones is few and far between. You have added some great tips that I need to take advantage of!
All moms need a little self care once in a while! I know I like to relax and have a nice bath when the kids are asleep to just release the stress of the day.
The key is to know when they will be occupied (like Paw Patrol) and take it! Get the in the “me time” when you can. it makes such a difference to everyone’s world.
Great ideas! I need to set a better bedtime for myself. Especially since my baby still doesn’t sleep through the night!!
Keeping it simple is so hard. I have no idea how parents do it. As an introvert being with someone, especially someone small is so hard! These are awesome tips!
I also suffer from continuous sinus and swear by Kleenex tissues. I have a stash by my bedside, in the car, and in my purse. I haven’t been sleeping much this December and I will follow your advice and get that quality sleep in.
Complicating things seems to be my biggest issue. I need to work on all these actually.
I never take care of myself as a busy mom of three and really need to start! These are such great tips that I will implement for 2018!
These are great tips (even if you don’t have kids like me!). Thank you for the self-care inspiration and the reminder to stock up on Kleenex now before my allergies get the best of me!
this is a great post! as moms, we put ourselves last and that not the best thing.
I’m not a mom, but I think it’s so important for moms to take care of themselves. Treating yourself with value is also teaching your kids to treat themselves with value when they grow up. Great tips on how to actually make it happen. I especially like the one of snacking on fruit with your little one.
These are all great tips! The one I struggle with the most is getting to bed at a reasonable time!!
The realistic bedtime tip is SOOOO important. My brother teases my mom for going to bed at 9 PM, but honestly, if I got up at 5 every morning, taught/ran the library desk for eight hours, worked out, AND had to deal with the two of us…I’d be in bed then, too!!
We have been going through tissues like crazy lately and I am almost out of toilet paper. Thanks for reminding me of Walmart online…I like to buy my paper products from Walmart and forgot I can do it online!
These are great, simple ways to make sure we’re taking care of ourselves as mothers. I’ve been hearing a lot about Walmarts free shipping. I’m going to have to check it out and see if it will work for me, because you’re right. . . even if I don’t have to bundle up the kids and go, I don’t even want to go out in the snow and 0 degree weather!
I think this is a great idea for mothers. When we have children we do not have time to take care of ourselves, only focus on caring for family and children. I need to arrange to have time to take care of myself.
Free 2 day shipping sounds wonderful! I didn’t know that was an option and honestly something I never would have sought out to find. I’ll be using this regularly and definitely for the times I’m not feeling well!