This month’s theme for tweens has been sleep habits. I know I’m the mom, but lack of sleep has been affecting me lately. Which leads me to wanting to yell, “When Mama Ain’t happy, Ain’t Nobody Happy!” I am a person who needs sleep.
My husband goes to work very early and often gets calls throughout the night, thus disrupting my sleep, as well as my other children’s night wakings- one sleep walks and I have a 1-year-old who is teething and night waking. This phrase is so true. If I don’t get the sleep my body needs, I’m scary. 
My children can attest to this. When I am the main provider for nurturing and care-taking, I need to take care of myself too.
So, how does one stay happy?. Sleep is always good. There are other things I have found that help me be a little happier. Eating right and taking the time to eat. Exercising. Being outdoors and natural sunlight. My mom once told me to do something for Kristen once a day. She didn’t mean it had to be some grand or expensive thing. It could mean read my own book for 15 minutes. It could be a shower (with the door locked). Something to remind myself that I am a person too. Too often as moms, we get wrapped up in all our other roles that we neglect the one that takes care of everyone and everything. If we neglect taking care of ourselves it can build to resentment, negativity, burnout and actual snowballing into a shutdown from all roles. Not good.
What have you done for you today? Did you get the sleep your body needs? Do your children know that you are a person besides being mom, maid, chef, laundress, wife, friend, neighbor, chauffeur, etc.? If you did something for you, what would it be? Remember, ” When Mama Ain’t Happy, Ain’t Nobody Happy.”
Tags: communication, Kristen Paulsen, Responsibility
Amen to this! I am absolutely with you. You can’t get water from an empty well.
Of course Moms sacrifice every day for their families, but that can be taken to an unhealthy extreme. What do we teach our kids when we don’t take care of ourselves? That mothers are less important than other people? That mothers don’t have needs? That mothers are there to be used and abused? What does that teach our kids about women and mothers?
We want our girls to grow into strong and independent women who are able to get the things they need. We want boys who grow up to respect and honor the women in their lives. What better example than having a mom who respects and honors herself and expects others to treat her accordingly.
By a strange kind of logic, that means moms should get to have naps occasionally, go shopping, have an uninterrupted shower, spend time with their own friends, enjoy some solitude, etc., etc., etc., . . . . even if that means that someone else’s needs have to wait for a little while.