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Are you a stay-at-home mom? If you are, you are in the right place! In this blog post, I will discuss seven stay-at-home mom habits that I like to stick to. These will help you stay busy and maintain your mental health.
I am proud to be the mama to a very sweet and very active one-year-old girl. As my life has gotten busier, it’s often easy for certain habits to fall to the wayside. For example, I rarely am seen out of yoga pants these days. My hair is usually in a messy bun to keep it away from little hands.
The life of a mama is hectic, so it’s perfectly normal if you are no longer able to do it all. You have the huge responsibility of taking care of a young child. It’s important to be able to give that your all and still find the time to take care of yourself.
That said, there are certain things I’ve found it’s important for me to keep up with. These stay-at-home mom habits have become crucial for me to maintain, as they help me and my child in various ways. Your list may look at little different from mine. There’s no judgement here if you don’t do all of these things. I just thought it might be interesting to share what tasks I most value as a mom.
It’s important as a mom that you carve time out for yourself. This can really help you keep your sanity and avoid feeling like you’ve lost yourself in your kids. For me, this looks like staying up for an hour or two after her bedtime to write and plan for my blog, watch a tv show, do devotions, or read a magazine. If I’m especially tired, I’ll shorten this to about 30 minutes. However, I try to do this daily because it helps my mental health. You may also find that there’s a better time of day for you to set aside for yourself. Maybe you prefer to wake up before your children in the morning. Perhaps they have a consistent nap time where you can steal away for a bit. Do whatever works best for you!
This habit actually started out of necessity – we had a mouse in the house, and while we were trying to catch it, I had to keep everything off the floor. Though our rodent problem has been dealt with, I decided to stick to my daily cleaning habit. At the end of the day, after my daughter goes to sleep, I tidy our living room and pick up all her toys. It helps to have a toy box or something you can just throw toys into – for me, it’s an ottoman coffee table. After cleaning, I get to enjoy my “me” time my pretty and tidy living room!
Walking is such an important part of my daily routine! Before baby, I used to take very long walks. Now, I walk with her in her stroller for as long as she’ll allow me to without getting cranky. Sometimes it’s a one-hour long walk, other times I take multiple walks throughout the course of the day. I gained a significant amount of weight during my pregnancy, and these walks paired with eating at a calorie deficit helped me lose about 50 pounds.
Cooking is one of my favorite things to do, so making our meals is an act of self-care for me. Since sometimes my daughter demands my attention while I’m trying to cook, I try to keep meals on the simple side. Meal planning is also very important. I plan meals for the week and create a grocery list based on those meals. I make an effort to check our fridge and pantry and use what I already have in my meal planning. This has helped us save money and eliminate a lot of food waste. Having a plan for our week has been a total game changer! As an added bonus, my husband is a great cook, so some nights he takes over dinner prep, giving me a break.
Need some inspiration or recipes to try? Check out the recipes section of my Pinterest board.
It would be easy for me to skip playdates. I’m somewhat introverted and often like to stay at home with my family. But it’s been so good to have playdates with my mama friends. Once I convince myself to leave the house, I’m always happy to catch up with my good friends. More importantly, Alexa is turning out to be a little extrovert like her daddy. She seems to thrive when we are spending time around other people. I want to make sure I’m meeting her need for social interaction!
It’s easy to get sucked into your busy and hectic mama world and forget about your friends on the outside. This is especially true if those friends don’t have kids for your child to play with. But it’s so important to stay in touch with the people you care about. I typically have to schedule my activities with friends well in advance. Also, when I have free time, I go through my phone and text friends I haven’t talked to recently. It’s nice to just to catch up on their lives and see how they are doing.
This habit is something I have done for years! I must say that the content of my journal entries has shifted since becoming a mom. My journals used to be a collection of deep or private thoughts. These days, I focus on writing down memories. After each weekend, I try to jot down a few of the exciting things we did as a family. When Alexa reaches a milestone, I write it in the journal. I also write entries to remember funny or silly things she does. Rather than being private, this journal is something I want Alexa to be able to read someday. In fact, my husband already reads through this journal from time to time to see what I’ve been writing about. I view this as a keepsake that will help me remember beautiful moments of my family’s life.
I hope this has inspired you to think about the important habits in your own life. What stay-at-home mom habits have you stuck to since becoming a parent? Let me know in the comments!
New to being a mama? Check out my post about all the things I didn’t know about motherhood.
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