Finding time for me!
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How do organised mums find time during the weekly marathon? Advice and inspiration for taking a breather: phew!
71% of working people say that they don’t have enough time!
Of course, positive changes within companies and improvements in domestic equality are all moves in the right direction… but when I look back over the past year, I still feel like I’m always running around, and when we talk to organised mums like you, our life starts to look like a daily marathon with no medal at the end of it! Now, because we at Coorganiz are not the kind of people to wait for things to happen, we went on an investigation to get some tips from those who manage to create some precious bubbles of time for themselves: a few minutes, a few hours… inspiration!
9.30pm Curtains!
This is Caroline’s mantra – she is a single mum with three children aged between 4 and 14. “The children know that after 9.30pm is my ‘me’ time. The older ones have to quit the living room and there’s no point in coming to see me with a note to be signed or any other subject that could have been handled together earlier. They really respect this time because they know that between work and the house, I don’t have much time for myself”. Set up some simple rules to make the most of the quiet time in the evening…
Sunday evening, keep it simple!
As for Carole, she gets the Sunday evening blues! “It’s intense in work during the week and the weekend is intense with the family! I need a little decompression space on Sunday evenings! I disappear into my bedroom or into my bathroom to be with myself. There is no family dinner; the children make sandwiches or heat up leftovers. When they were younger my husband cooked dinner, but I am off on Sunday evening. Not chatty, not funny just at peace inside my bubble! A little goodnight kiss and there you are! I am available all week long, so two hours on a Sunday evening seems acceptable enough, don’t you agree!”
The annual weekend.
Nathalie has a reconstituted family and doesn’t really get her quota of personal time during the year “I go away with my girlfriends one weekend per year: nothing extraordinary, but those two days away with the girls get me through a good part of the year! I’m not on my own, but it is my way of recharging my batteries! I switch off the telephone – the dads are in charge for once!”
The Monday coffee.
Sophie takes time off on her way to work on Monday morning. “People come in later on Monday morning but I leave my house at the usual time and I stop off for a cappucino in a café all by myself. I look at the people, I don’t do anything, my thoughts come and go… barely 20 minutes later, I’m off again! I must look so happy with myself that nobody comes over to bother me” she laughs.
Get up earlier.
Isabelle takes 30 minutes to prepare and enjoy her breakfast in peace. “I love that time” she tells us. The calm before the storm! Isabelle has four children, so the mornings are pretty animated.
Thanks girls! Well, I’m choosing the Monday morning coffee and the Sunday evening snack – a double decompression chamber before the week begins! I like the sound of that!
