me time

[me time]

NOUN

informal

time spent relaxing on one's own as opposed to working or doing things for others, seen as an opportunity to reduce stress or restore energy.

LOL

An abbreviation that stands for 'laugh out loud

It will come as absolutely no surprise to millions of frazzled women up and down the land that the average mum ends up with just 17 minutes to herself a day. (17 whole minutes. 1020 seconds!)

After going to work, looking after children of all ages (even the ones that should be looking after themselves), looking after their partners/spouses (even though they are more than capable of looking after themselves),  doing the lion’s share of the housework (research states 78% is still done by women) including all the laborious and boring chores of shopping, ironing and getting down and dirty cleaning  the skirting boards (why do we actually do this? – do we imagine people are going to get down on their hands and knees and examine such handiwork admiring the clean lines and craftmanship of such a mean and deep cleaning regime?) Before cooking, helping with homework, after looking after pets and anyone else or thing that enters the house resulting in the average mum getting less than an hour and a half of waking time to herself.  Imagine that! – It sends shock waves of shock down the toughest of us with the broadest of shoulders, thickest of skins and shortest of memories!

Now stop imagining it and start reliving your day, your week, your month and all of a sudden 'me time' over what time has become precious time!  It also can become wasted time when those rare moments (all 1020 seconds of them) are wasted by doing something menial like watching the box, or just putting up your feet and enjoying a brew and a biscuit!

With life being so fast moving, demanding and damnright hectic it is easy to become frazzled and sometimes feel that you are living your life entirely for other people!

Begrudgingly when you suddenly jump off and leave your busy world spinning it appears that you are the only one in your household not able to switch off after work unlike your partner who nicely and selfishly fits in more time to relax within their routine never thinking about lightening your load just adding to it!

The feeling of never fully relaxing is always present especially if this is overcome by outstanding jobs still lurking in the corridors of your active mind resulting in any free time being used to plan for the next day to ensure everything is done and you may just reach over and above that 1020 second rule!

Being the driving force and working hard can make it much harder to remember everyone needs a daily recharge.

So now it is time to get selfish to ensure that we can achieve the ‘me time deserved!

Being the driving force behind many families should also allow us to be the passenger and just enjoy the view every day!

Heres some suggestions of how ‘Me time’ can be spent;

• Write something. Poetry, a letter, a short story, a journal, or blog entry.
• Dance yourself dizzy!
• Have a bubble bath/soft music/candles
• Take a walk
• Window shop
• Treat yourself to lunch.
• Have 40 winks.
• Find a good book and get lost between the pages
• Go for a swim
• Call someone you haven’t talked to in a while.
• Do Laughter Yoga
• Do Yoga  
• Laugh
• Get crafty
• Go for a drive
• Hug your pet!
• Have a massage/pedicure! 
• Try a new recipe. 
• Get out in the garden
• Do absolutely nothing. (feels good doesn’t it!)