The Clean Life

I thought maybe when I had a baby, I’d become one of those people who could say she constantly sacrifices her own needs for those of her family. Say it with a straight face, I mean.

The reality has been that for better or worse I’ve remained plenty capable of sleeping in, taking solo vacations, and telling everyone to just leave me alone for ten freaking minutes–all of this without guilt–even if those personal luxuries only happen once in a blue moon. (Off to Google what the heck that idiom even means…)

Now that we’ve been a one-working-parent family (again) for a full week, I’ve been busting my butt to make sure all the balls stay in the air, and I’m finding that when a ball does drop, it’s likely to be one labeled Me Time.

When BlogHer asked me to post a few words on how I put myself first, and how doing that makes me happier, it was an easy question to answer because right now there’s only one thing I can count on a pure, uninterrupted, rejuvenating time to myself: my daily shower. Fine, my every-other-day(ish) shower.

Historically, the boys have had a habit of busting in on me, whether to ask a question, demand a snack, to just say hi. Last week I put my wet, soapy foot down. “I’m only in here for ten minutes. Whatever you need can wait. Ten minutes. That’s all I ask.” (That was my polite way of putting a KEEP OUT sign on the door; if I’d got that route, I might have included “Trespassers will be shot.”

Ten minutes in the shower. It’s not much, but it’s mine all mine. And it really does make me happier knowing that.

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