Being a mom is challenging, busy, brain-bending, meaningful, fulfilling, draining, and rewarding. I feel these things every day as a mom of two. The number one thing I struggle with 100% is taking care of myself, Mom.
Taking care of the person who does all the things to keep our family and home operating smoothly. Doing all the things that no one realizes we do. Bearing the unconscious invisible load that weighs on our shoulders. Scheduling and remembering kid’s doctor and dentist appointments, holidays for kids at school, birthday parties, play dates, homework, do the kids have all their snow gear? Where is their F*ing hat? Ugh, better add one to the Amazon cart.
The Struggle
I’m sure many struggle with this, so I thought I would share my struggles. The number one thing I struggle with to take care of myself is remembering to eat (Don’t shame me. I’m not a twig, and I’m not trying to lose weight. Trust me with Ulcerative Colitis, losing weight can be triggering.), but it is a struggle that I have and I’m trying very hard to do better and take care of myself. Keeping in mind as someone who has a limited diet it is rather easy to skip a meal, because most of the food I can eat needs to be prepped and cooked at the time of eating. There aren’t many reasonably priced, tasteful options for people with Ulcerative Colitis.
Moms don’t usually have much time to spare. I feel that previous sentence every day. I’m on the move from the moment I get up, get kids dressed, lunches made, and kids off to their places. That by the time I come home I’ve already thought of the list of sh*t I need to get done. Of course, the list is way longer than what I can realistically get done before the kids get home.
I’m attending work meetings, doing laundry, unloading/loading the dishwasher, back to working on wireframes and prototypes, mapping out usability testing, and taking out the garbage. The list goes on. Whenever I have a spare moment between meetings I try to get something done around the house. Unfortunately, since those moments are short and sometimes not very frequent, food never comes to my mind… unless it is compiling a grocery list or submitting an order for Target pickup.
The Plan To Better Take Care of Mom
- Set up food subscriptions so that I have the food I need consistently, at the set price I’m willing to pay. This food with show up probably monthly and will be my quick on-the-go pantry food. Such as protein bars. I’m debating on using Thrive Market for this.
– I have made protein bars to save money, this just comes down to a lack of available time.
– Protien Bars (Larabar & GoMacro & Truvani) I use the App Trash Panda to scan products and double check for bad ingredients. I try to avoid inflammatory oils, artificial sweeteners, and other black listed ingredients. Not just for myself, but for my kids as well. - Marking a lunch hour on my work calendar and forcing myself to eat before doing house stuff. This one is going to be difficult to do.
- On the days I go into the work office, stopping at a grocery store and buying breakfast and/or lunch to bring in. OR start meal-prepping cold lunches, because I do not have time to wait for a microwave to be available in the office.
I can’t eat cold vegetables that often, thank you Ulcerative Colitis, you @$$ hat. Gluten-free bread is $6+ and is the size of a banana bread loaf. So I’d have to make 2 sandwiches. I’d have to start buying dairy-free yogurt… yuck and I usually save the fruit for my kids. Crap, I better get on Pinterest for help with this one.
Sadly the biggest challenge I can see with most of these items, is the fact that it is going to be more work for me. More of a cognitive load to try and make sure I’m eating, since it’s not something I have been thinking about. Hopefully, as time goes on it will be more of a routine and less of what feels like a chore. Hopefully, it’ll help me a better mom because I’m doing better at taking care of Mom, me.
How Do You Take Care of Mom?
My struggle may or may not be common for other parents. So tell me what’s your Mom struggle? How are you taking care of Mom? OR are you still working on it?
Would you like to hear how my plan goes? Comment below for a Part 2.
