It’s hard! Being a working parent is difficult at the best of times. And when there’s a busy weekend of events, as well as housework, and trying to keep everybody healthy, you can feel that you are spreading yourself too thin. When you are trying to make everybody’s lives a priority, you start to reduce the importance of your own. As we get too busy in life, we can feel our health starts to decline. What does it take to keep on top of your health as a busy parent?
Don’t Skip the Regular Check-Ups!
You might think that you are fine in yourself, but when you get into the habit of skipping one eye appointment or hearing test, you may think that there’s no point in going back for a while, and what happens is that you’ve started to prioritize everybody else’s needs above your own, and before you know it, it’s been years since your last appointment! And it’s these regular appointments that will keep you on top of any potential health issues. Hearing problems can begin when we turn 40, and if we need to find a hearing specialist, we had better make sure that they are there when we need them. Regular check-ups are the best way to make sure that you are in fundamentally good health.
Putting a Plan in Place
You need to plan for absolutely everything! You even need to plan for when you sleep. When it comes to keeping your kids organized, you need to make sure that you are organized as well. When you plan ahead, even when it comes to meal planning, it saves you a lot of time, but it helps minimize stress! With a plan, you will always be able to keep ahead of any stresses. You can start to apply it to other areas of your life. By laying out your clothes the night before, this is one less thing for you to do when you wake up. And the time that you would normally spend laying your clothes out means you can either spend some quality time with the children or just relax for five minutes.
Stop Stressing About Sleep
In fact, you need to stop stressing altogether. If you worry about the sleep you’re missing out on, this becomes a vicious cycle. You then stay awake after night. Sometimes it’s better to plan your sleep a week in advance. There’s a really interesting podcast on the art of sleeping, and the link is here. But it’s not necessarily about the number of hours you sleep, but about the number of sleep cycles you complete. This is why you may wake up in the middle of the night feeling pretty refreshed! But it’s also about incorporating some rest period into your day, not necessarily napping. But actually powering down.
We can feel we’ve accumulated a few grey hairs as a parent. And the stress alone can make us anxious beyond our comprehension. But this is why you’ve got to keep on top of your health, but also now think of yourself as important as everyone else in the home.