With food and gas prices on the rise, and pay scales frozen and crazy family scheduling taking over our lives, it has become perhaps even more impossible to take some mommy time and/or family vacation time. But it’s during these times that vacation, staycation or any other leisure activity is the most important thing for your sanity and for the health of your family.
Moms are on call 24/7/365 (or 366 in leap years). There is no break. No time when a mom isn’t thinking about her kids and lunches and what to do with them on the weekend and which one needs to get his shots, or teeth cleaned or ...
This is even more so with single moms (and single dads) because in couples, ideally, the family/housework and related responsibilities are often shared. When you’re single ... you’re it. There is no relief — and, yet, there needs to be.
Mom time is important
Moms need mom time. Whether you’re a stay-at-home mom, work-at-home mom, work-outside-the-home mom, single or married — you need time for you.
Your body is tired. Your mind is tired. And your family needs you, and needs you to be at your best, which you can’t be if you’re not rested.
A long-term study done by the Organizational Psychology Program at Rutgers Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology found that “the most effective executives ... take mini breaks throughout the day to give their brains a rest ... [T]he human brain and mind become tired and less efficient while focusing for an extended period of time. To be more efficient, workers should take time to stare out the window, take a walk, or even make a phone call to a friend.” (1)
You need time, whether it’s a regular stop at the local coffee shop, or going for a Sunday drive, or corresponding with online sister-friends ... you need down time. And I’m not talking about rushing into the coffee shop and rushing out with a cup of java on your way somewhere else.
I mean, sitting down, reading a book, or newspaper, chatting with other moms, working on a fun, leisure time project — something that doesn’t involve parenting or related responsibility. You need time when you’re not always nagging and correcting and directing and chauffeuring, or even cheering on.
You need time to just be you.
Family vacation time is important
Every person needs a break. So often moms (and dads) are afraid to take time off. They feel guilty for not working every second they can. They’re afraid their financial and professional world will crumble to pieces if they even take a single extra day when in actual fact, these things may happen if they don’t take a vacation.
It is often this fear of letting go for a bit that glues us to our laptops and smartphones and superphones even while away — but we need to learn to put that aside, too, as part of the setting of boundaries between life and work. This is supported by psychiatrist Edward Hallowell of Harvard Medical School. (4)
Vacations relieve stress including alleviating stress-related medical issues such as headaches, cardiovascular disease, cancer and infections that occur or take longer to fight off because of a weaker immune system.
Vacations improve mental skills and a person’s outlook on life. Vacations, hopefully, allow you to catch up on sleep — nature’s own stress reliever, which is probably why we all look so forward to long weekends.
Most importantly, vacations — whether staycations, day trips or longer times away — help us and our families to slow down, relax, reconnect with each other and build the bond of family.
“Refusing to take time off burns people out and wreaks havoc on productivity. Vacation deprivation is one reason workers are reporting more mistakes, anger, and resentment at co-workers, according to the Families & Work Institute”— and the same can be said about the way we treat our spouses and our children and other important people in our lives. (4)
Everyone knows that when you’re burnt out due to family or work responsibilities, you’re no good to yourself, no good to your family, and no good in the workplace. If you’re not healthy, you can’t be any good to anyone else either.
Moms make so many sacrifices throughout the course of a single day, it’s hard to stop and take a few moments to just be us — not a mother, not a chauffeur, not a cheerleader, not a nurse — just a Darlene, or Cindy, or Kelly, etc.
When we reconnect with who we are as a person, we can become a better mother, chauffeur, cheerleader and nurse.
And the same can be said when families take time to spend together and reconnect with all the fun things that make a family, creating memories and relationships that will carry us through those in-between vacation times.
Sources:
1. Studies Show Vacation Time is Vital. Knowles, Amanda. TheCommunityWord.com. Web. May 20, 2013.
http://thecommunityword.com/online/blog/2009/09/12/studies-show-vacation-time-is-vital
2. Why You Really Do Need to Take Vacation Time. Moore, Melanie. Families with Purpose. Web. May 20, 2013.
http://family-life.familieswithpurpose.com/why-you-really-do-need-to-take-vacation-time
3. The benefits of vacation. Standard Life. Web. May 20, 2013.
http://www.standardlife.ca/wellness/en/lifestyle/vacation.html
4. Do Us a Favor, Take a Vacation. Conlin, Michelle. Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Web. May 20, 2013.
http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2007-05-20/do-us-a-favor-take-a-vacation#disqus_thread
Reviewed May 20, 2013
by Michele Blacksberg RN
Edited by Jody Smith