Tag Archives: self-care

5 Quick Activities for Self Care

Many parents are looking forward to the start of a new school year. Keep in mind that back-to-school comes with hectic mornings, help with homework, and the enforcement of a bedtime routine (that may have lapsed over the summer). It is important for parents to take a little time for self care while the kids are at school. Here are a few simple ideas to start with. The Living Self-Care website says that moms and dads that take care of themselves first will have more to offer to their children (and to the rest of the world). Self-care doesn’t have … Continue reading →

Skin Changes During Pregnancy

Have you noticed any changes in your skin now that you are pregnant? If you have, take comfort in knowing that skin changes like breakouts, heightened sensitivity or dryness are common during pregnancy. If you have not experienced any skin changes yet, consider yourself lucky – and remember the tips from this article in case you do experience some changes during the coming months. One of the most annoying skin changes that can happen during pregnancy is that breakouts happen much more often than you may be accustomed to. Before you head to the drug store to pick up a medicated … Continue reading →

Grant Yourself Little Treats

There have been times in my single parent life when it was all I could do to make sure the basics were covered—food, shelter, education, healthcare, etc. I have had my share of typical life setbacks and there is a temptation to let these experiences make me very thrifty and very cautious with my finances. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but like all things in life, a person can take it too far… Little luxuries can go a long way when it comes to keeping one’s spirit up and reminding yourself that you are not just here to … Continue reading →

Tackling the Challenge of Loving Ourselves

We have heard the talk about self-love and self-compassion, but it is one thing to read the articles and “say” that we are all about loving ourselves, it is quite another thing to actually tackle the issue and work on truly getting to a place where we forgive ourselves, have compassion for ourselves and love ourselves. As single parents who may be struggling with other issues, this can be a big task to tackle. When I decided to start working on my self-love, I realized that it was going to be a big project. After all, the more mishaps, mistakes … Continue reading →

What Helps You Feel More Grounded?

We all have activities and coping mechanisms that help us feel more grounded—those things we can do when we start to feel restless, unsettled, or as though we would fly off the face of the planet if it wasn’t for gravity! What do you do to make you feel more settled and grounded? If you’re looking for some ideas to help you during those unsettling times, here are some suggestions: I tend to either clean house or sort and purge when I am feeling ungrounded. I have to admit that the feeling does not come to me as often as … Continue reading →

Do Something Just for Yourself

In the Parenting Blog yesterday, I wrote a fun little piece about surviving as a parent by taking a break from being a parent for a short time—just pretending for an hour or two that you are not a mom or a dad and getting out of that identity. For single parents, I KNOW this can be especially hard. After all, we don’t normally have any back-up and we cannot just turn things off and head out the door on a whim. What I do think we can do, however, is train ourselves to do something occasionally just for us… … Continue reading →

Take a Break and Pretend you’re Not a Parent (for an Hour or Two)

How about a game of pretend? This time, instead of playing make believe with your child or children, how about playing make believe with yourself? I am not talking about walking away from all of your parental duties and obligations here, but just spending an hour or two pretending that you are NOT a responsible parent—try not to think about, talk about, and focus on parenting and your child for just one or two hours… It may sound like crazy talk, but it really isn’t. We all need a break and then we can come back to our busy lives … Continue reading →

Getting Beyond Survival

I wrote earlier today about the basics of starting over—just a little refresher course for those of us who are going through transitions or in need of a boost as we work to rebuild our lives. Of course, single parents are not the only ones who need a crash course in starting over, but it is definitely part of our life path! In the midst of getting things going again, you might find that you get very good at just surviving—holding things together and struggling along at sustenance level. At some point, however, it becomes time to take a leap … Continue reading →

Teaching Kids to Take Charge of Their Own Happiness

I know that there are many of us who read this title and wonder how on earth can we teach our kids to take charge of their own happiness when we may still be trying to learn how to do it for ourselves! It can be a joint lesson to learn how to stop blaming and interpreting that the happiness is something that comes at us from the outside. It can also take years to learn this valuable life lesson, but as parents we can start our children on the road to happiness… We can point out to our children … Continue reading →

The Rejuvenating Power of a New Pair of Shoes

What is it about shoes? I think next to a new hair cut, getting a new pair of shoes can be rejuvenating, healing, and therapeutic–not to mention it can just be the thing to lift a person out of depression and back into the world. Even children benefit from a new pair of shoes… The other day, I was having lunch with an old friend at a lovely little café–we were talking about the challenges of having nearly grown children and comparing memories of when our children were much younger. The young son of the owner was playing nearby and … Continue reading →