It's a New Season

Next week, my family will be celebrating my son's graduation from college.  Boy how time flies. It seems like he was just 8 years old, playing with his gameboy.

When my kids were growing up, I worked a lot. I had a full-time job and a part-time job. There was a time when I had a full-time job and 2 part-time jobs. In my mind, I was doing this for my children. I never wanted them to feel the financial burden that was a huge reality in our lives. I wanted them to have everything that children with 2 parents in the home had.

One day my son sat on the stairs and said, 'Mom you don't love us anymore." I said, "Why would you say something like that"? He said, "Every time you are home, all you do is fuss at us." That is when I decided to only work one job and spend more quality time with my children.

I made sure I put them in fun activities such as bowling and soccer. I even took them out on date nights. The date nights were the most fun :-). Each kid would get to spend quality time with me. I think I enjoyed those nights more than they did.

The lesson that I learned from this was if I don't take care of me, I will not be here to take care of them. In my mind, I was doing the right thing. My priority was to make sure my kids were financially taken care of. I was always tired, I never exercised and I rarely ate right. My patience was short and I rarely had time to just sit down and talk with them.

Now that they are grown and I am raising a second set of kids, I make sure that I take time out for me. I now wake up 2 hours earlier than everyone else. That's when I exercise (well I think about exercising) and have my me time. The kids are put to bed at 7:30 every night and that's when I focus on the things that I need to do.

When they are older, I want to be able to spend fun quality time with them and make lot of memories. I never want them to feel like I'm too tired or too busy for them.  All I want them to feel is an abundance of love.

So be sure to carve out some me time somewhere in your busy schedule so that you are there for your loved ones.