Mom break - Realistic self-care ideas for stay-at-home moms

If you’re whizzing through your days in a blur of exhaustion, you need a break. Here are 30 self-care ideas for stay-at-home moms to help put the joy back into motherhood... 

The term self-care is often accompanied by a beauty spa image, but that’s not everyone’s ideal and it’s not realistic for many moms. Instead, decide what self-care means for you. 

Ask yourself what you would do if someone could look after your kids for two hours. 

My ideal self-care session is being able to paint or draw while listening to one of my favourite podcasts with a face mask on (multi-tasking self-care here). 

Here are more realistic self-care ideas for moms...

  1. Meet up with a friend for a long scenic walk 
  2. Go clothes shopping – for yourself
  3. Have uninterrupted reading time, preferably in bed 
  4. Watch a movie alone  
  5. Start a sewing or knitting project 
  6. Try a new recipe 
  7. Declutter and organise your wardrobe 
  8. Do some gardening 
  9. Buy yourself flowers 
  10. Workout 
  11. Write a letter or email to a friend or family member faraway 
  12. Take photographs in nature or of your family 
  13. Create a vision board 
  14. Dance 
  15. Write a blog post 
  16. Go for a walk 
  17. Do something you used to love as a kid but haven’t done in years, like rollerblading, skating boarding, riding a bicycle, horse-riding, skipping, flying a kite or hula-hooping
  18. Make something out of clay or paper-mâché 
  19. Go to the library alone and get out books for yourself 
  20. Have a video call with a friend or family member 
  21. Get your haircut (or give yourself a pandemic DIY haircut – click here for great tutorials)
  22. Listen to a podcast 
  23. Pray or meditate 
  24. Organise a safe (masked) playdate with a mom friend so you can chat while the kids play
  25. Try a new hobby or learn something new by following a YouTube tutorial 
  26. Stretch 
  27. Draw or paint 
  28. Give yourself a foot or facial massage 
  29. Listen to an audiobook 
  30. Journal 

How to make the time for self-care

If you can get someone to watch your kids regularly for a few hours – enjoy it - but if that’s not possible, there are a few options for time-strapped moms. 

  • Get up before your kids
  • Stay up later than them
  • Take advantage of your child/children’s scheduled nap/quiet time/independent play or TV time

You might be a morning person, but I’m a night owl so if I want to work on my blog (which is one of my self-care passion projects), I tend to do it at night. 

If you feel like you don’t have the time, steal it back from the things that keep you busy but unfulfilled. 

For example, if you don’t enjoy cooking, try meal planning and cooking in bulk so you don’t have to cook every single night. When doing the laundry, fold clothes straight off the line so you don’t need to iron them. 

30 Realistic self-care ideas for stay-at-home moms

Another way to steal time is to pair unavoidable boring chores with something enriching – like unloading the dishwasher while listening to a podcast. 

And finally, stop picking up after your kids and start giving them chores. My 4-year-old knows that he has to do his simple chores and complete a 30 – 45 minute independent play before he can watch TV.  

Some periods of motherhood are intense, and despite your best intentions, you don’t get much time for yourself. 

For me, art and writing is self-care, but I can’t do either very well when I’m exhausted. When you don’t have the energy for ‘ideal’ self-care, make sure you give yourself a few micro-self care moments. It could be putting on your comfiest clothes, giving yourself a quick facial massage, drawing for five minutes while your kid eats a snack in the park (that’s one of mine) or listening to an encouraging podcast while tackling unavoidable housework. 

Being a mom is awesome, but I’m realising that it’s even better when we can hold onto the best of who we were before kids...and self-care is a way to do that. After all, good moms are good to themselves.

PS. You might like to read To the mom who lost her jobHow do you find me-time as a mother? and How to work from home with a kid

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 

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