Featured Article: Relax Mama

Featured Article: Relax Mama by Alicia C.




Summer is nearly here and I'm more than ready for warm weather and a less busy schedule. When you're really busy and running from one thing to the next it's easy to become annoyed or frustrated with the accidents that happen when you have a preschooler.

I often think of the following incident when it's time for me to just chill out and laugh. I had just taken a shower and put on newly washed jeans before I left to pick up Caylen from Kids Day Out. When I got there, she was still napping. I gently picked her up and snuggled her in my lap while trying to slowly wake her. She finally woke and said she had to go potty. When she got up I realized that she had pee'd on me. It was all over my clean jeans and my recently showered leg. At least Caylen had a change of clothes. I was a little irritated when really I should have been laughing. I laugh when I think about it now. It's moments like these when we need to laugh at the pee upon us and move on.

Summer is a good time to de-stress, but it can bring a wave of panic because the kids are out of school and home with you all day long. You frantically look for every possible activity for your kids to be in so you can remain sane this summer. It's so easy to become overloaded with activities. I urge you to resist that temptation. Let this summer be the one that you allow yourself time to reconnect with your God, your family and your friends. Give yourself permission to not feel like you need to be in competition with other parents about how many vacations you go on and how many activities you have your kids signed up for this summer.

When you're relaxed, you're kids are able to relax. Plan to give yourself a little TLC and put it on the calendar. Here are some ideas: look for a new devotional book or join a summer Bible study, pick out a couple favorite verses and commit them to memory, ask someone to be a prayer partner with you this summer, start praying with your husband. Make a point to get together with friends, without the kids. Start a new exercise class or program.

Set some healthy boundaries for your kiddos when it comes to summer activities that you commit to. Let them be involved in one activity at a time and let them choose it. Then, enjoy the rest of your summer going to the zoo, Deanna Rose, play dates, swimming, picnics, running through the sprinkler, going on nature walks, blowing bubbles, sidewalk chalk, planting flowers, going to the park, library, movies, and a million other options that are non-committal and hopefully stress free. And if your kid pee's on you, it's o.k., you're washable.

Then just soak it all in (no pun intended)... and breath easy.