More Stress Free Time… for Moms!

1. Start de-stressing on Friday night: Take a walk around the neighborhood with kids, husband, friend, neighbor, boyfriend etc.or take a hot soak in the tub with a good book, magazine and scented candle.
2. Get errands done during the week so you have more time to play with the family on the weekends. Go to the park, swim, bike ride, or play basketball. What matters is do what your kids consider to be fun. They will remember your playing with them, not that you cleaned the house.
3. Let the dusting go. In the grand scheme of things it’s not that important. After seeing a recent version of a weekly house cleaning show, my house is PERFECT in comparison!! I no longer need to feel any guilt and neither do you. Family and friends are more important.
4. Shop late at night after the kids have gone to bed and spouse or other adult is there to watch. If you’re an early morning person, shop before everyone wakes up.
5. Trade off with a friend to watch each other kids for an evening so you and your spouse can go out together and have an adult night.
6. Get the babysitter to do something extra (put away the dishes, wash a load of laundry, dust the living room) for a few extra dollars.
7. Take advantage of free delivery from many local shops and services. More and more large grocery stores are offering shop on-line and delivery services.
8. Plan the weekend ahead of the weekend. What each person needs to do and who’s going to do what and when. Share the chores. Pay the kids a few dollars to pick up the toys or something “extra.”
9. Write or journal in your quiet time. Schedule down time. I keep a pad and pencil by the bed because many of my best ideas come during rest.
10. Take mini trips: a day at the zoo, sea world, trip to the mountains, and a day at the beach. These mini getaways help our general well-being and mental health.
11. Have personal time: get a massage on the weekend, spa manicure/pedicure, stroll into a favorite bookstore or boutique, have a leisure coffee or tea. The office supply store with all the colored papers and pens is a favorite for me.
12. During waiting times: take a walk, do bills, read a magazine, zip open the mail, keep a file of “need to read.” When my son takes a class, most of the parents are sitting and waiting. I take walks around the block several times for exercise.
13. Share sleeping-in time: you do it on Saturday and your spouse sleeps in on Sunday if you have young children.
14. Take your child and a friends’ child to their evening class one week and then their parent does it the next week.
15. Take turns with your spouse reading to your child, helping with homework or putting them to bed.We can’t do it all, all by ourselves, so why try? You’ll go nuts and then your kids will go nuts. Get help from whomever you can rope, grab, coerce, solicit, bribe, pay, or plead with to help you out. Even single friends are sometimes happy to play for a day with your kids and give you a break. That can be the “gift” they can give you next time they ask, “What would you like?”

Copyright 2005 Eln Albert