I love being a parent, love being a mother, but somewhere along the way I think I lost myself a bit. Endless nappy changes and sleep deprived days meant taking little time for myself. Don’t get me wrong, it is totally fine by me and completely worth it. But I think after the early stages with a baby, I needed to get out of a sweat-pant, tied up hair rut and as I have more time for myself, make sure that I use that time wisely to develop myself and get back to feeling ‘normal’ (if there is such a thing). Here is what I have done to help me:
~ Setting Goals
Rather than just sitting an telling myself that I’d love to shift a few pounds and feel stronger, as I had been doing for months and months, I chose to set goals to work towards. That way, I had a bit more motivation to push myself and work harder. I have a busy time coming up over the next two weeks with my first ever Triathlon one weekend (eeek) and then the following weekend I will be doing a 5k colour run. They are both things that I have wanted to do for a long time and soon I will be able to tick them off as done. I have enjoyed the training and taking that alone time to go for a run or a swim, has really helped me too. Physically writing down the goals helps too I think – need to work on my ’30 Before 30′ list soon!
~ Sweat Pants? Hell No!
For me, I have decided that unless I am exercising or going to the gym, then I shouldn’t be wearing sweat pants or jogging bottoms. It takes just the 
same amount of time to put on my skinny jeans and I feel a heck of a lot better and less slobbish when I don’t have them on. Make sense? It might be just me!
~ Change Something
Being able to change the things I can change about myself has really helped me feel better too, in the short term anyway. Exercising and weight loss don’t show results instantly, so in the short term, changing things about my hair or make up, definitely helped me to feel different and more confident. I had wanted to have candy floss pink hair for a while, so my sister just said she would do it for me. I just went with half a head to start with but I loved it – completely freshened up my look. When I get brave enough I might go for a whole head of it!
~ Using Your Strengths
Being at home with the children can often mean lots of tidying, wiping mess, playing games, clearing up toys. But if you work to your strengths to teach your children each day, you keep your mind active and your children will learn things too. My children definitely know about colour coordination, organisation and the best ways to clean things – just call me Monica haha.
What do you find helps you feel better about yourself?
Rebecca x
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Ah this was a lovely read – I feel a bit the same. After four children I think I need to mind myself again. It’s my birthday next week so maybe that is a good place to start from #sharewithme
I think we all lose sense of who we are after having kids and it’s important to make time for yourself. Thanks for the reminder x
I found the same. It is so easy to get lost in the needs of the family. For me making sure that I wore clothes that I loved helped and fitting in things that I value like writing and reading were important too. It is funny how we loose that feeling of being ourselves and don’t notice until it starts to return. Great post. thanks for sharing. Kirsten
Mine are doing A levels and I still wear sweat pants in the day – oops! But then I do work on a farm. Glad to see you are coming through the baby days, they are great but there is even netter ahead in parenting. #Sharewithme
Now this is interesting because I’ve noticed a blog post or two along similar lines being written by stay at home dads (like myself). It may sound vein, but cloths and appearance are important to me, more so than when I worked. I think this is because you do have to compromise yourself as a parent, especially a stay at home parent so it’s natural you would want to make the effort when you can. #sharewithme
I’m new to blogging and WordPress…in fact have read other blogs but still haven’t wrote my own ! I’m still in Learning face and trying to figure out what exactly I want to do or say. Yours was one of the few blogs that I read so far and I certainly can relate to a lot that you said especially the sweat pants thing. I do have a leg injury which makes me more couch or bed prone, but I definitely need to give those up as well…..at least some of the time 🙂
Great post hun and good for you. I love it. I always try dressing up because it makes me feel good even though I work from home. I tend not to get lazy as much if I am not in my sweats too. lol Thanks for linking up to Share With Me blog hop. I hope you have enjoyed reading so many fab other blog posts and to see you again tomorrow for another great round of #sharewithme
This is so lovely!! I would really like to start setting some goals for me too. I feel the same that there is no time for me anymore. My little one is now 1 year old so it is a little better than before although she still needs lots of attention. I think I can slowly starting to take care of myself and try things that could make me feel better. I think doing something to my hair is a great idea! I love your pink hair, it looks so modern. Well done for your training. That is the best way to loose weight! I love your black dress. The collar is so cute!! 🙂
#sharewithme