Responsibility For Self

It’s a big word and it is a big responsibility to parent a child. But it’s also our responsibility to keep a good balance in our lives. To make sure we take the time to get enough sleep, eat healthy, spend time with friends, prioritize our relationship with our co-parent(s) and include enriching activities in our day.

This can mean exercising, spending time outdoors, taking a coffee break, catching up with a friend or colleague, eating a healthy meal, or setting up a date.

Sometimes our responsibility is to ask for help, say “NO” or delegate a task.  Parenting implies busyness and some times we have to intentionally slow everything down, take some time off, call in reinforcements, barter with a neighbor or share the workload with our partner.  Just shutting off our phone for an hour, off-loading some obligations or engaging others for assistance can make a world of difference with fulfilling our responsibilities without having to do it all.

 Taking time to explore outside interests, feed our creativity and connect with others, is imperative. It takes plenty of energy to help another human being grow, learn and develop, so it’s our responsibility to make time to care for ourselves.  A happy, well cared for parent makes for happy well cared for kids.