Being a small business owner doesn’t leave you much time for yourself – add a kid or two (or more) to this formula and the time for your self seems to shrink to almost nothing. Being a mompreneur, you have to make sacrifices, and while I knew time was going to be one of those sacrifices when Evie came into the world, I’ll admit that I wasn’t fully prepared for just how little time you have left for yourself.
“Me time” was not something I even thought about or considered before Evie – because without kids you can pretty much just do what you want, when you want (within reason of course). Want to go for a run? Sure! Want to swing by H&M after work? No problem. Want to go see the latest Harry Potter movie? Which showing! For those of you with kids though, you know this is not the case – it takes plans, babysitters, scheduling, and packing at least 2 extra bags of STUFF.
And that’s only if you actually find the energy to do the things you want to do.
I’ll admit that this has been a real struggle for me – finding time to exercise, go shopping, or even just veg out. There really isn’t much time for that when your a parent – business owning or not. And even if you have an amazing partner (like I do!) that helps to prep dinner so you can squeeze a workout in, or offers to do the food shopping this week so you can hop into a store and find some new clothes, it can be extremely hard to realize that you really have little to no time for yourself.
I know this is something I am just going to have to continue to work on. To accept, and understand that that is just the reality for now. I have to tell myself that in the grand scheme of life, working out and buying clothes aren’t as important as spending time together as a family, and working hard at both my jobs. I need to accept that the time to myself is infrequent and cherish it when I can get it and be OK with the fact that for a while, during these child rearing years, I am just not going to get a bunch of it.
I’ll continue to have good days and bad days on the subject and I’ll continue to look for ANY advice to help in this area if you’ve got it!
Stay strong out there, fellow mompreneurs.
2 comments
I have the same struggle! You are not alone! I work totally from my home with flexible hours — which means I am constantly balancing it all: childcare/activities for my toddler, work, domestic tasks, errands, oh and personal life. Block scheduling has really helped me. ie being really committed to something when I am doing it. If that means during naptime I am 10000% working — then I am doing that. If that means while we are on a walk I take a conference call – ok. Putting down the phone and distractions to hang out with my son for an hour – yep. Me occasionally vegging out during playtime – also done guilt free! Block scheduling has helped me use my time more intentionally, get (almost) all my stuff done, AND feel less guilt about being a distracted mom or sometimes needing time to myself. Still a learning process… good luck!