With Valentine’s Day just around the corner and all the hype about buying that special something for that special someone, it got me thinking about something. There’s Mother’s Day for us Mothers where we are obligated to spend (yet another) day with our offspring, albeit on this day most of us usually don’t have to cook breakfast, but very often are left with the washing up. Birthdays, once again, are spent enjoying the day with all and sundry; Christmas is again a family affair, as is Easter and pretty much every one of the other 120 public holidays. Women’s day is the one day that we don’t need to share with the ENTIRE family but then that’s only because no-one really takes that day too seriously. So unless you want to stand in the freezing cold with 10 000 other women at the start of the ladies race, the 9th of August pretty much comes and goes in the normal blur of household and familial chores - the only difference is that if you're a working mom who have the bonus of not having to go to work !
So I’m just wondering when is it “Me Day”? Now if I posed this question to my husband, he would say every day is “Me Day” and he wouldn’t be referring to himself as the “me” but rather Moi! Nevertheless, I want to know on which day of the year do I get to stop being a Mother, Daughter, Class Rep, Employee, Chef, Lawyer, Arbitrator, Gardener, Professional Shopper, Teacher, Coach, etc etc. When do I get to spend a day just being Bernadette? Doing things JUST for Bernadette?
When do I get to lie in and not worry about making sure 3 other people have eaten breakfast, brushed their teeth and put on clean underwear? When do I get to spend a day leaving my clothes on the floor (ok, I do that now, but with a tremendous amount of guilt because I know it bugs the crap out of The Husband), when do I get to leave the lid off the toothpaste, marmite jar, milk bottle and deodorant (again, sans guilt!)
When do I get to spend a day worrying only about whether I should have left-over pizza or a few olives from the packet for breakfast? Whether I should bother putting my pajama top on for the day, or even my pajama bottoms on for that matter? A day when brushing my teeth is about as unimportant as brushing my hair. A day where I can pick my nose or toes (if I wanted to), lie in bed and scroll through facebook albums laughing at how much older my younger friends look than I do and watch episode after episode of mindless tv – all guilt free.
I want a day where I don’t have to worry or think about anyone but myself. I want a day where I don’t have to answer anyone but the voices in my own head and even then the chances of them being answered are pretty slim.
I bumped into a friend and fellow blogger recently - at the coffee machine at the Dr's office - where else would 2 tired moms meet!!! While chatting to her I realised two things; she is just as hysterically funny in real life (her blog www.lumpyporridge.blogspot.com is literally laugh out loud funny) AND I am not alone in wanting to hide away from my kids every now and then. At one point she mentioned that she would rather wee in a vase than venture out her room to go to the toilet which would instantly alert her 3 offspring that the mommy was in the building! I could relate to that… although I have never thought to wee in a vase. I have always tried to sneak past them like a spy... but like my friend says, they can smell you... kids can smell their mamma's from a mile away and if you make the mistake of venturing into that 1 mile radius... well good luck to you - that's the end of "Me Time!"
Now don’t get me wrong, none of this means I don’t enjoy being a Mother, Daughter, Wife, Chef, Class Rep. Teacher, Coach, Lawyer etc… it’s just that every now and then I’d like to connect with my good old friend Bernadette every now and then and see how she is doing. Most of my day/Week/Month/Year is spent making sure that I am meeting the job requirements of all the other roles I fill that I forget to spend a little bit of time with Me!
But then again… last week I went to dinner and a show on Wednesday, a friend and I had a gossip session and drinks on Thursday night, it was movie day on Friday with a couple of moms and I met a friend for coffee on Saturday! None of these events involved kids, fighting, cooking or cleaning up afterwards AND I certainly didn’t need a gun to my head to do them! The Husband thinks this constitutes “Me time”.. but meeting and socialising with friends is a necessity not a luxury – its something that must get done, ideally every day…
No, ME TIME, is a weekend away at a spa or hotel where I don’t have to cook, clean, arbitrate, or negotiate… ME TIME is where I don’t have to think for anyone but myself and can leave clothes on the floor and lids off the toothpaste (guilt free), where I don’t have to answer question after question about what we are going to do during every minute of the day.
Me time is all about, well ME….
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