Take care of yourself.
We all say it. A message of wishing someone well, usually said as we part. But what does taking care really mean?
As parents, there are so many things we do in a day on autopilot. Packing our kids’ lunch in the morning, helping them get dressed, driving them to school, the trip to work… These are things we just do without even thinking about them.
But what if we stopped to put a bit more care into some of them?
What if we got the kids to help us make their lunch in the morning and therefore opened ourselves up to a chance to connect with them before school?
If we withheld our judgement about what they want to wear to school and stopped doing it for them, would that give them the freedom to choose and do it for themselves?
If we walked to school instead of driving and noticed how the rainwater drips off the trees to nourish the grass, or tried to figure out what kind of bird was making all that noise?
What if you used your drive to work to call that friend that you haven’t spoken to in months and check in one how they are doing? What if you parked further from work and walked a bit longer or took the stairs instead of the elevator or brought your lunch instead of buying it?
As a busy working mother of two, I understand that each of these suggestions take more time than doing it “the old way.” It can be hard to change your routine when you have set it up that way because it works so well.
But (and stick with me here…) how would our lives change if we actually started to “take care”?
– Stacie Gaetz
