FREE BodyTalk sessions

I have recently set up a new website and transferred my blog to that site (here). On this page you can sign up to receive a free monthly BodyTalk session which I will conduct as a distance session for the benefit of the people who have signed up. Feedback will be emailed to you. Each month the session will focus on a different topic. This month the session will focus on commitment fears (this does not just relate to relationships but also projects, work, life). The whole session may not be relevant to you but any link that is relevant will have benefit for you.

Signing up will also enable you to receive my updated blog posts and other offers including free ebooks, relaxation mp3s, as well as notifications of upcoming webinars and programmes.

Looking forward to sending you some more empowering information for conscious living and conscious parenting!

Starting a new chapter…

I have decided that seeing as there is not much interest in this blog as compared to my other blog, Conscious Living, I am going to stop working on the Conscious Parenting Diary and instead incorporate the posts into my Conscious Living blog. Seeing as parenting is definitely a part of living (even if sometimes it seems to be barely surviving!) it seems apt it should be a part of Conscious Living. I will therefore be posting on a broad  range of topics related to living a conscious life and this includes how to parent consciously.

I hope you might find my Conscious Living blog useful and beneficial and I wish you all the very best in your continued efforts in parenting and living consciously.

13th Oct: Mothering my inner child without guilt

I regularly receive acupuncture treatments to assist my general well-being and to help with managing stress and fatigue. The lovely practitioner I see always reminds me to be gentle with myself which is very refreshing as my own nurturing self is so busy looking after my children, husband, dogs, cat, and clients that there is very seldom gentleness and nurturing left for me. She told me during my last treatment that she hoped that I might be the person who will one day write the book “Mothering Without Guilt” i.e. maybe I might get it right. Ha?!!

This came about because I shared with her that I have decided to take up Biodanza (this involves concious movement and dance). I went to my first class on Monday and it was fantastic! I got in touch with me and my body again – complete strangers for the most part and in the last 5 years used largely for the purposes of keeping my children alive!

However, at the same, time I felt guilty. I felt guilty that I was doing this for myself and my husband was at home and had had to put our daughter to bed when I know he was exhausted due to work stress and the molar monster which emerged over a month ago and haunts us every night. So I made myself feel better by telling myself that the dancing would make me a better, more relaxed and less grumpy mom and wife. Isn’t it funny that my excuse to enjoy myself was was still about others….?! Why was I not allowed to simply go and enjoy the 1h30 minute lesson for ME and not to make me better for others?

And here I thought I was making in-roads into this mothering guilt thing, preaching about being a good-enough mother rather than needing to be perfect…..Hmmm. It is as if that guilt just hides around the corner waiting until I start to feel comfortable and then it sinks its claws into my leg as I walk past, just reminding me to pay attention to it. How do I let that go??

Perhaps simply being conscious of the guilt but doing things irrespective of the guilt is the way forward? I may have felt a little guilty on Monday night but I can also tell you that I felt a huge sense of release and joy for a couple of days afterwards. The whole class had been centered around release, compassion, love and joy so it was a great choice!

What it also made me think about is how as parents we often somehow take on this serious, responsible role. Don’t get me wrong – someone needs to be able to pack the sharp knives away, take the marble out of my son’s mouth and prepare countless school lunches – but with all the responsibility I have neglected my own inner child. When I have done things for me it has always been in quite a contained and responsible way e.g. Pilates (if you find fun in Pilates then please let me know how you manage that!)

Dancing is different – it is a form of creativity, expression, fun and freedom that is closely related to being a child. And it’s been so important for me to play with my own inner child and just say acknowledge her again! In fact, the class made me think how much my children would love to join me for some kind of dance/movement and then I had to catch myself and remind myself  – “No, THIS is for me and my own inner child for a change!!”

15/09/2016: Teaching our children to say “NO”

This may seem like a funny concept seeing as many children have absolutely no problem saying NO to broccoli, peas and bedtime. However, I am referring to the ability to say no in situations where their boundaries are overstepped, in both smalls ways and in big ways…like sexual or other even other forms of abuse. In fact saying no at home is very linked to being able to say no to an inappropriate adult.

I have recently been presenting a workshop with women focussed on rape prevention. A big focus in this workshop is the ability to be firm and assertive when a boundary is violated….after all the majority of rapes are perpetrated by men known to the victim and very often these men start with a kind of ‘interviewing’ process where they test womens’ boundaries. However,  here’s the thing…all the women I have witnessed having to exercise assertiveness have really battled. The statement always comes up “But it feels so aggressive”, or “it feels so rude”. Society tends to expect women to be polite and to some degree to comply. Be honest with yourself – this is deeply entrenched at a subconcious and often even conscious level. Women will often giggle uncomfortably, make a joke, move away or, even worse, apologise as if it is THEIR OWN FAULT, when a boundary is violated by a man in particular and this can be as simple as someone moving into their personal space or more overt such as being on the receiving end of lewd comments.

In the workshop this tends to lead to a discussion about our children and it is mentioned how we tend to let our boys be louder, more aggressive and more confrontational “because that is just what boys do”. However, when our girls do these things it makes us uncomfortable and we tend to nip it in the bud (after all we don’t want our roses to be seen as thistles!). However, it is not always this generalised. In many cases the more anxious and controlling moms (and let’s face it we can all be that mom at times) will put an end to any form of a boy or girl loudly shouting or hitting or, God forbid, standing up to Mom.

Let’s face it – if a child, particularly a girl, is taught that it is bad to be confrontational, loud or to stand up for the self at home then why on earth would that child do that with a complete stranger?! If the message is to comply, be obedient and be quiet with adults then the child is pretty likely to do just those things with an adult who orders that child to undress or to do something that makes him/her a little uncomfortable. This is particularly the case when there is a lot of corporal punishment at home (and especially if it is out of proportion to the ‘crime’), giving the message that it is OK for an adult to lay hands on you and make you uncomfortable even if you do not like it.

So how do we remedy this? It is not easy. After all children do need to have boundaries and limits set. In fact these actually help children to feel safe and certain about where they stand. However, if the boundaries and limits are very rigid and allow no room for  a child to express their own needs and desires, and if there is no room for a discussion or negotiation around these limits and boundaries then it is not realistic to believe that the child will feel she/he has a right to say no to something that he does not like, including something sexually inappropriate. Allow your child to have choices where there is room for choices e.g. what to eat for supper (giving a couple of health choices), what to wear, what to do today. If your child appears deeply upset about something you have insisted upon give them room for discussion and try to see it from their point of view (is your own need for control or you own anxiety preventing you from seeing that your child has needs and desires that may be different from yours and that may not actually be a threat to you, your child or a general sense of ‘being in control’?)

If this sounds really difficult to do then start in really small ways like two different options for supper so they can say no to something. And, of course, teach your child how to say no politely but don’t get too hung up on it either! Yesterday, I found myself telling my daughter, “I know you are angry but you must still be polite”(!!) That right there is the message we give our girls! It’s not right in that anger is a protective emotion yet politeness causes us to often compromise ourselves and our need to protect ourselves. Instead, I am going to be focussing on teaching her how to be assertive – firm about her needs in a respectful way. If her boundaries are still being pushed then anger is appropriate.

So, it’s about balance. Establish what your hard and fast limits are, related to safety, respect and truth perhaps. The rest of the time look for opportunities for a child to make some choices or for some form of negotiation and self-expression to take place. This may push your own buttons around control issues!

The crux of all of this is self-empowerment and it is generally only the self-empowered children who tend to be be able to say NO and to come home and tell Mom or Dad what happened. In fact, in many cases a potential abuser will not approach such children in the first place. There is no way a child will say no and then report back if the child is worried that they will get into trouble for saying no/being rude or, God forbid, standing up for her/him self.

To add to this in our house we have a rule that if you are tickling, hurting or upsetting someone and they indicate that it is enough you have to stop immediately. That no has to be respected. This is to teach my daugther that she is allowed to say no if something makes her sore or uncomfortable and to teach my son that he has to be aware of his power and be very respectful of the limits of others.

And one last thing….the most important no your child be allowed is to say no to hugging Uncle Fred from next door or even Grandpa or Mom if they do not want to. Trust and honour your childrens’ boundaries.

 

 

24/08/16: What I will miss

When I am one day no longer a parent of little people I will probably actually miss many of the things that I take for granted and some that even drive me crazy! So I decided to try to be more conscious of these moments…..

Not knowing where anything is as things constantly get moved around and thrown away by little people who have just discovered the bin or have the attention span of gold fish

Doing puzzles minus a couple of pieces

Having little feet pressed firmly into my back or an arm flung carelessly over my face while I try to sleep

Silly giggles, and funny, farty noises

Little hands that reach up and slip into mine as if they have always and will always belong just there

Being a hero

Being a princess

Having the ability to kiss everything better

Being called a thousand times a day, often repeatedly, many times in one minute

Putting a lot of effort into food that gets spat out or surreptitiously fed to the dog

Being called to come and “Look at the poo I made Mom” (!)

Splashing in swimming pools, dog bowls and baths that become endlessly entertaining

Building sand castles and not minding having sand EVERYWHERE

Receiving little scribbles on pieces of paper which portray the most magical of worlds as well as being declarations of love

Bikes being ridden around the house, under the table, into the dogs and over my feet

The shout of “heyo Mommy” every time I enter a room, even if I only left the room 10 minutes before

I may even miss scribbles and paint on every conceivable surface (and I am sure that in years to come there will still be evidence of those that the most vigorous scrubbing could not clean off! Just a little reminder…..)

 

25th July: Sending my heart to school

Every mothering bone in my body (and that’s all of them including the 26 bones in each foot that get abused by jettisoned Lego/Duplo pieces) drive me to prevent my children from feeling any form of pain – be that physical or emotional. I believe that the expression “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” is incorrect. Hell hath no fury like a mother protecting her child. Maybe the fury is different. In the first instance it is possibly cold and calculating. In the second instance it is raw and primal. That instinct to prevent a child from getting hurt is just so darn inbuilt and strong in mothers.

And then it comes time to send your child to school.

This is the most excruciating experience for me. It is like leaving my heart at school when I walk out leaving behind an hysterical child who wants only one thing…. his mother. In this case I am talking about my son but I have been through this before with my daughter and it is even more difficult this time around.

I spend every mothering moment trying to protect my children from being hurt. I get mad when I hear that my daughter’s little friends have said something to upset her, I cuddle and hold them when they fall and scrape and bruise,  and God Forbid another adult had to hurt my children (in some instances this includes my husband and he has to gently remind Hell Fury Mother that he is also a parent and has rights to upset my, I mean our, children!). Yet, I take my child to a place filled with strangers, where he does not want to be and leave him there for a couple of hours when I do not really want to… when all I want to do is cuddle him and make it all go away and tell him he is safe and it is over (and where I gladly run to ‘rescue’ him when I get a call to say he is not coping and can I fetch him early!). Hence why the whole starting school thing is so excruciating in the beginning.

When I leave the school in the morning with a lump in my throat and knots in my stomach I have to remind myself that he is with people who are caring for him, people who know how to manage his emotions and in a place where he can learn to have a lot of fun and be greatly stimulated. At home, he has emptied every rubbish bin a thousand times, unrolled 80 plus rolls of toilet paper, drawn on countless surfaces, ridden the dogs into the ground and driven our endlessly patient char/childminder a little crazy as she tries to get the housework done while doing damage control. School is a good thing for the little tyrant. The crazy thing is each morning he grabs his school bag and runs to the car. But when I leave the school he falls apart. Then I feel like I am falling apart too.

This is probably the greatest battle of motherhood (besides having to balance their needs and your own needs so that they are healthy and well-rounded and you remain sane!). They start off as part of us, literally; they then remain firmly attached to us and reliant on us for survival; and then they start to take a few steps, sometimes away from us but mostly around and back to us; and, finally, the apron strings get stretched a bit further and a bit further and it’s time to let them go one little step at a time. Our whole mothering journey is ultimately about letting them go. Isn’t that crazy?!

As a psychologist I know that this is a very important process in determining what kind of adults they will be. I also know that a healthy attachment allows for healthy independence. I believe my children and I have a largely healthy attachment (I don’t think I could have been any better even though I was nowhere near the perfect mom I aimed to be!) I know that this separation process is inevitable. Then I question myself. Maybe I am forcing indepedence on my son when he is too young (he is after all only 1 year 8 months and school is not entirely necessary – I just thought maybe he would enjoy it (and our house would finally be cleaned and our clothes ironed!)? Maybe this is more about my needs then his needs? Who the hell knows really.

So instead, one week in,  I continue to leave school in the morning with a lump in my throat and knots in my stomach leaving my heart behind in that little class room with him and I just hope that in a few more days he might just enjoy it and the floods of tears will trickle to a few drops to nothing at all. I do believe he knows that he is loved. He comes back to a secure home and routine that helps him feel safe and held and he still plays and laughs and dances. So no matter how difficult it is initially when he gets to school he knows he is not alone and has been taught to trust that the world (generally) is a safe place that will hold him.

Because one day my children are going to completely sever those apron strings. They are going to keep lots of secrets, have dreams and desires that I am not privy to, want to go to places with their friends that are as far from me as possible, go to university, have their own children. And that is how it should be. They are also going to get hurt – not just once, but many times – emotionally and physically. And that too is a necessary part of their journeys. However, I am sure that then, like now, my heart will still be with them and they will continue to know that that they are loved and they can always come “home” if they need to. But ultimately it will be them versus the world. Yikes!

For now, I am just going to focus on the first big step – another day of school separation and another step that stretches those apron strings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10 June 2016 Discipline or Destruction?

I have been battling to put my finger on this exactly but have now been able to put into words why I find the discipline balance so very difficult with my daughter. I am often conflicted about when to draw the line on disobedience that is also self-expression. My daughter can be incredibly sweet yet when she’s difficult she’s very difficult because she has strong willpower.  I obviously do want her to realise there are times when she has to sublimate  her needs and respect boundaries. She does have to realise the world is not going to revolve around her and that boundaries are very often in place to protect her or others.

However, I don’t want to squash my daughter,  her willpower and her self-expression and teach her to become a pushover. I don’t want her to be think she has to please people all the time. I don’t want her to believe she does not have a right to stand up for herself (even if she does sometimes still not get her own way after doing so).

I attended an amazing series of talks recently and it made me think a lot about how I discipline Jocelyn. Often discipline is a no-brainer, especially when it involves safety and respect of others. However, there are also a lot of boundaries which are about MY needs and not about her needs. Often I get angry when she wants something different from me or does not want to listen, because it makes life more difficult for me or because it makes me feel like I am losing control and I don’t like to feel powerless. However, I believe it is crucial that I nurture her self-empowerment too and teach her that she is important. I am not giving her a very good message if I keep telling her my needs are more important than hers and never let her have a little self-expression.

Don’t get me wrong, as a psychologist I have seen full-well how important and necessary boundaries are and how a lack of healthy boundaries can severely undermine a child’s self-esteem and sense of safety. I think it’s important that parents be the parents and it’s very important to not be afraid that your child may not like you when you are disciplining them. You do not have to be your child’s friend BUT don’t squash your child when you discipline.You still need to respect him or her as a person. You are shaping the person they are and will become.

I remember reading a very powerful blog about a little girl who grew up to be a shell of herself due to her mothers constant reprimands and demands. She developed so many masks she stopped knowing who she really was while trying to be what her mother wanted. When her mother realised this and attempted to let go a great deal on many of her expectations it took a very long time to get her daughter and her trust back. I have seen plenty of people in my practice who were stifled and reprimanded and they attend therapy due to relationships or work difficulties – because they cannot assert themselves, keep taking on ‘stuff’ for others, feel resentful because their needs are never met, and they all battle with low self-esteem.

At the same series of talks I attended I learned a great strategy from a pastoral psychologist and mother. She spoke about teaching your child emotional intelligence (EQ vs IQ). This is very dependent on the parent being able to control and manage their own emotions. I am aware of all of this and aware of the fact that I often get angry very quickly and it is often not necessary. The stategy she shared was thus very useful and was taken from rugby. When about to scrum the players are told to “touch, pause and engage”. To put this in practice before battle with children means touching/tuning in to my own emotion as it is triggered; pause with it, figure out what it is about and then engage with a response to my child. My husband and I have even started to use this with each other when we see one another losing our temper with our children. James will gently remind me “Kerry….touch, pause and engage”!

I have also been thinking about how to discipline in a more constructive way so that instead of my daughter feeling wrong, ashamed and powerless she can instead own her mistake and feel empowered to fix it. My default is often to shout and then afterwards to talk about the situation and why I was angry (or at times apologise for being unnecessarily angry!). In the same series of talks the suggestion was made that as parents we can side with our child against the ‘sin’ – e.g. “Oh no, now you are going to have to clean that up”, or “Oh no, that really hurt your mother and now you’re going to have to find a way to make it better.” Yes, the child has done something wrong and there is a consequence to that action. This is acknowledged but you also acknowledge that they have a problem now and it can be difficult for the child to know how to fix this so you offer to figure that out as a team. This involves creative discipline i.e. “what can we use to clean that up?” “How can you show mommy that you are sorry for what happened”? Shouting, getting angry and then leaving a crying heap of a child or a sullen child in the wake of the ‘sin’ leaves them powerless and demeaned and does not solve the problem or help them to know how they can do it differently.

I have always believed that I want my child to internalise her behavioural modifications i.e she behaves like this and not that because she believes that is the best for her or others and not because she will get into trouble if she doesn’t. So the above method of creative discipline assists a child to be aware of consequences of actions and how the actions could be different, as well as the consequences of doing it differently, versus feeling punished and shamed.

The way we discipline can have a very real impact on how a child learns to regulate behaviours. I saw this with many of the male offenders when I worked at Pollsmoor Prison – they had authoritarian fathers who beat, criticised and/or shamed. Obviously these were the extreme cases. However, as a result, as children and later adults they did not learn compassion and empathy and did not consider consequences from an internal perspective. Many of them were clueless and powerless as how to be different.

I once read a book called ‘French Children Don’t Throw Food”. The author is an English mother bringing up children in France. She mentions the use of the bêtise which essentially refers to a small fault, one not worthy of discipline. This concept has helped me to choose what I get angry about and what to let go. There are the non-negotiables (dishonesty, disrespect of others or jeopardising safety). However, there are a lot of times when I use “touch, pause, engage” and then realise it’s really not the end of the world if my daughter wants to finish her TV programme and does not want to bath right away or if she does not want to eat all the food I put on her plate. After all, I don’t like being interrupted in the middle of a TV programme and I don’t always eat everything that others may serve me. Instead, I assist her to tell me what her needs are and to ask if she can watch a bit more or leave the food etc rather then get defiant, rude etc. I attempt to be respectful towards her needs (when these do not fall in the non-negotiable category or impinge too much on my own needs) and ask  her to be respectful in asserting her needs.

Last  night, after writing this, my 20 month old son (unlike the French children!) decided to throw his food and refused to eat a lot on his plate, which is totally unlike him. When I removed his plate with the food he did like, telling him he can’t have the plate if he is gong to throw his food, he responded by banging his head on the table! It appears that my creative discipline; and touch, pause and engage are going to be taken to a whole new level as number two begins to flex his willpower muscles!

 

 

 

13th Feb 2016: Spiritual delay tactics

In my quest to raise a spiritual child I decided to introduce gratitude to Jocelyn tonight at bedtime. After giving thanks for the important things, the not so important things and then getting to things like the couches, door and washing basket, I realised that all I have actually done is introduce to her an amazing new delaying tactic to add to her already impressive bag of tricks – which includes the usual “I am still hungry”, as well as “look what I can do with my legs” (various contortions including headstands against the wall) and how many different ways she can give me a kiss (this bedtime she added the new ‘pinkie finger kiss’)!

I recently made the decision to increase Jocelyn’s spiritual awareness after a funny incident that happened. She told me they were saying grace at school before they ate their lunch. I was interested to hear this and asked her who she was praying to when she said grace. She looked at me with pity for being so silly and told me “Hawk and Odette” (the teacher and teacher’s assistant)!

However, I have been very unsure how to go about this spiritual quest. I know I want my children to be spiritual but I myself am no longer religious. Yet I think that to create an awareness of spirituality one needs to be introduced to religion. I don’t believe I would be as spiritually aware without the foundation of my Catholic upbringing. I thus recently started taking Jocelyn to Sunday School which means that I once again find myself in a church where I don’t necessarily believe I need to be in order to fully appreciate spirituality. I experience spirituality through mindfulness practices like yoga and meditation; being outdoors; my work with the incredible strength, honesty and vulnerability of my clients; the miracle of witnessing my children developing daily; and acts of kindness and care from pure strangers.

I have therefore realised that a lot of what my children will learn from spirituality will hopefully be gained through modelling me and hearing what I say (and don’t say). Jocelyn already attends yoga classes because she has seen that I go to yoga (and attended yoga with me in utero and as a tiny babe!) and thus has an affinity for it. There she is already learning about mindfulness in simple ways. She hears me talking about gratitude and responsibility for others and our planet. We share many moments in nature being amazed by creation and listening to the wind in the leaves, feeling the sun warm our skin and smelling the sweet scent of flowers. Jocelyn sees me doing reiki and BodyTalk which involves working with energy and the principle that we are all connected energetically and essentially are all one.

So, perhaps I am getting too caught up in intellectualising spirituality and need to be assured that my life encompasses spirituality and that my children will learn from this and take it on, should they wish to.

That said, little children are innately spiritual and very curious and I know that those big questions about “who made this?” and”how did that happen?”are all going to start very soon. All I know is that when I answer those big questions I would like to share the concept of there being something bigger than ourselves and that we are all connected by that thing that is bigger than us. In addition, I believe that that something that is bigger than us and which connects us is also within each of us. Now, how the heck am I going to explain that?!

So, for now, I am going to stick with Sunday School and religion to provide some of those answers and hope that my children will not be limited by that as they learn to generalise their spirituality from there and include what I model and share and believe – perhaps owning it for themselves or perhaps tossing it aside if it doesn’t fit quite right. I also suspect, and hope, they will search in their own ways too and, one day, hopefully find a version of spirituality that works for them but something that they can hold on to in times of difficulty and confusion and something that can help them to have a sense of who they are in this world we live in.

Right now I am happy to share my daughter’s version of spirituality that includes gratitude for washing baskets, couches, and pinkie finger kisses, and the joy that children have in each day that makes them never want to go to sleep.

 

31st January 2016: How to have fun

Pinterest

Last year I wrote a post on living small and how I have become so aware of that little child within me who by default wants to live small and hide away quite a lot. Only fairly recently (isn’t this sad yet so awesome?!) I have learned two things – firstly, how to have fun and secondly, how to be spontaneous! And yes, they do go hand in hand.  I always ran around busy, busy busy, wondering how people managed to find the time to have fun. I then had the realisation that the time does not come at some point – it is right now and that I just have to stop what I am doing right now, whether complete or not and grab the opportunity when it comes up. I didn’t even know the word for this. I was trying to explain it to someone and she provided the label – ‘spontaneous’. I had to try it out like a foreign word -spon-tain-i-ous- and hear how it sounded and feel how it fits me, but, yip, it’s definitely the right word!

This all came about one very hot evening while I was once again in my home office aka kitchen preparing school lunches for the following day and getting supper ready while my children were jumping on the trampoline and being sprayed by my husband as he watered the garden (the ever-present good girl part of me wants me to point out that this was during allocated watering times!). I was thinking how amazing it looked and then realised that I could be there too. The dinner could wait. The school lunch could wait. I ran outside, in my clothes and jumped on the trampoline – jumping with kids while I got soaking wet. I found myself looking at me and saying, “Yes, this is me… having fun! Feeling silly! And loving it!”

My children have rescued me from myself. I learned from an early age that to be safe I needed to be in control, be a good girl and generally take life seriously as life could really pull my legs out from under me at any minute if I did not. This belief has hung onto me like a locust – sticky, spiky legs and all. No matter how hard I try to shrug it off it just sticks. Then my kids came along. I have been forced to watch myself watching them playing and avoiding playing with them as I continue to find a million things that ‘need’ to be done. Why have I done this? Because that little girl who lives so small inside of me is terrified to have to feel again. If she puts herself out there she may have to remember what all those little girl feelings were like and that’s very scary.

This all came home in a big way when I spent a holiday in the Transkei at a place I have been spending Christmas holidays at since I was only just starting to figure out that when my Mom said Kerry she was actually talking to me! We were there when my daughter was 18 months old and this time she was 3 and a half years old and Tyler was one. I couldn’t remember 18 months but I can remember bits and pieces of 3.5 years (incidentally it was when my sister joined our crew). So when I saw Joss, rolling around on the beach, with sand in her ears, hair and inside her costume yet loving every minute of it (remember those days when we didn’t mind where the sand went?!) I was instantly transported back to being that age. It was powerful. I had really forgotten that part of me. And there she was making 3.5 years look like such a blast!

I used to be that little girl too and so I started to try it out for size. I made fairy castles and sand castles and got sandy all over! I did a lot of processing during the holiday and have been paying more attention to that little girl inside. I have continued the focus on living out there and living true, no matter if I have to feel some stuff that is difficult. I have tried this before… working through many layers and many hours of therapy… but somehow this is a whole new level. It’s more difficult when I am home and back in the swing of things but I am continuing to force myself to just stop whatever I am doing and have a little fun. Spontaneous is still a little foreign for me but it’s starting to feel like I language I really want to be fluent in……Thank goodness I have the little people to help me do that!

September 2015: There is no “ME” in “MOM”

Well I am not a MEOM. How about you? Maybe that is because there is so often no “ME” in “MOM”. I can’t eat my own food without having to stop to feed my children or satisfy the grabbing hands of my constantly ravenous 10 month old; I can’t go to the toilet without having long conversations with my daughter or rescuing the toilet paper from my son. Right now as I try to write this post my daughter is wanting to show me her Stickeez collection for the umpteenth time while singing “Willa, Willa, Willa (?!)” over and over again in my ear. OK, shoo…she’s been distracted…. but now I just feel guilty. And right there is the point of this post!

I have been VERY tired  this week as we have had the teething week from hell with Tyler waking every 1 to 2 hours most nights (This is when I wish human children could be born like animals – with a mouth full of teeth and largely self-reliant!!) Being tired means I have been very intolerant and can’t help but feel resentful of my children’s never-ending needs. I know it is not their fault. They didn’t ask to be born (well, some would say that they do actually choose us before they come – in which case I have no idea why my children chose such a grumpy, over-tired mum!!) I know that I wanted my children and wanted to be a mom yet I still can’t help feeling resentful at times.

It all came to a head when I decided I REALLY needed to exercise and wanted to do a little session on the trampoline after having found a download of a rebounder fitness routine (for the record it is WAY harder doing this on a full-sized trampoline versus a little rebounder!) However, fully kitted out, with Tyler fast asleep, and ready to go, Jocelyn began to complain of a sore ear. I spent the next hour  nursing her ear and holding her on my lap while the Calpol kicked in. When I finally got around to the trampoline Jocelyn threw a fit about not wanting me to jump on HER trampoline. WELL….that was it. I regressed into a completely overtired, angry child. I threw down my Ipod (on the grass thank goodness) and yelled “What about me?!!” “It’s always about everyone else….” I even stamped my foot (ashamed (!)) Fortunately, Dad stepped in to look after all the children he saw having meltdowns and we sorted it out. So I got to do a little bit of exercise and IT FELT SO GOOD! It was the first time in 10 months that I have really got around to doing exercise that is a little more hardcore than the postnatal yoga classes I attend once a week. If I can get there.

The next day I was exhausted after another night of stolen sleep and left Jocelyn helping my husband with DIY work around the house so I could sleep when Tyler slept. Of course I then felt guilty as weekends are supposed to be when I spend more quality time with the children while I am not working. Once again, the big dilemma was – do I look after my needs (to sleep) or my children’s needs?

However, here’s the thing…. there is an “OM” in “MOM” and I am not necessarily talking about reciting a mantra while holding an impossible yoga pose, but rather the general concept of mindfulness. In this case I am referring to being mindful of ME and looking after your needs while it is so very easy to shelve them when there are so many other needs from children, partners and others. “MOM” and “ME” battle to co-exist so rather focus on the “OM” while being Mom. Here is the most important reason why….if you don’t look after yourself you will be no good for anyone else. As it was, after being able to sleep, my sense of humour was restored, I had more energy and was able to be more present for my children. Jocelyn had been fine doing DIY with Dad and did not have to have full-on, one-on-one time with mom. Sometimes we can let go a little and let our children play alone or alongside what we or others do. Later I did give her some of that one-on-one time and it was great because I felt so much better and able to enjoy it.

Secondly, if you can take some time for ME then you are showing others that you respect yourself and this gives them the message that you and your needs are worthy of respect. If you keep on putting your needs aside for others then others will keep expecting that – your children included. Finally, if you can take some time for ME then you demonstrate for your children that it is important to do things that are nourishing and nurturing for themselves. What an important lesson to share with your children. You are teaching self-care and, ultimately, as they learn to be self-sufficient we you can have a bit more time for yourself! Further, they will be well-prepared to become self-sufficient adults who take good care of themselves and their own needs.

I know it is not always practical to take ME-time but I also know that if you want it badly enough and make an effort you can find a way to get some ME-time. If you have too much guilt around this – take a look at where that comes from or ask someone to help you explore it with you. Does it perhaps come from your own childhood and your experience with your own caregivers? Well, you are not that child anymore and neither are your children. Theirs is a different experience. Try to find balance if you can. Try, as much as is possible to put some “OM” back in “MOM” so you can find “ME” again. You will be doing your children and yourself a big favour….!

NOTE: this post of course applies to Dads too but my witty wordplay ended with “Mom” and I don’t have the brain capacity right now to extend it to “Dad”!