If You Had One Extra Hour Every Day How Would You Spend It?

Even before becoming a parent, there were always never enough hours in the day to complete everything that needed to be done and still do things that I want. Becoming a mother stretched that time out even further, but I make it work.

If somehow you were able to have one extra hour every day to do as you please without worrying about anything, how would you spend it? Would you take a nap? Would you do some chores around the house? Would you go out to see a movie? Would you take the time to cook yourself a fancy meal and then enjoy it bite by bite? Would you take an education course or read a book? Would you spend it with your child or family? Your options are endless! Let me tell you all the ways I would take advantage of that extra hour.

Bad Mom’s Night Out

This life we chose it great, but there comes a time where mama needs to tap out and take a break from everything: from motherhood, from being a wife, from being a boss. Whether than is drinking my caffeinated morning beverage that was made for me by the talented barista, or enjoying a handful of frozen margaritas from the sexy bartender, or attending some sort of conference or workshop literally because I actually want to learn a new skill for myself, it’s all the same. Sometimes we just need a break from our lives to rekindle who we are as a person, to let go of the responsibilities and limitations, and just be ourselves and grow if we want. Damn, now I really want to go to Lonestar… if only the hangover could vanish (mama’s gettin’ old!).

Sleep When The Baby Sleeps

This saying has been going around for as long as I can remember, but people often don’t clue in that no—I cannot sleep whilst driving or walking around the neighbourhood (the only times baby seemed to sleep for the longest time). The other side of this one is that if I sleep, nothing else gets done; no housework, no client work, no marketing, no eating, nothing. Life becomes a stand-still which doesn’t actually improve my ability to be two places at once even when well-rested, so this one happens once in a blue moon during her second nap of the day when I am literally too exhausted to function and wouldn’t be doing anything productive anyway. But if I could hit pause mid-day to get a quick nap to tackle the rest of it feeling rested and less cranky, and still have time to get everything else done that needed to be completed that day, that would definitely be a great option!

Mother Hustler

As a person, I am all about efficiency and productivity, so I have systems in place that help make it happen for my business while I am out of the office. For other things, I make sure to delegate and outsource wherever possible for tasks that don’t absolutely need to be done by me, the artist, so it liberates my time to do other things. Buuuut if I had an extra hour to spend on marketing my business to bring in more of my favourite types of clients, rather than doing less-than-loved work, I totally would—especially if it meant I didn’t have to lose an hour of sleep or me-time to do it!

Family Is Everything

I love my kid, I really really do, but being around her all of the freaking time makes me really not like her sometimes too. Same goes for my husband; sometimes he really gets on my nerves and I wonder how I put up with him. So as much as I would love to spend more time together as a family, what we truly need as a collective is some time apart so that we actually can appreciate the time we do have together. So on one of our family days, my husband and I rarely see each other because he lets me have a work day while he watches little miss—he just brings her to boob for feeding times. This works for us, but I wish I had more patches of this throughout the week; it would make my sanity go that much futher.

So if a friend or family member that you trust offers to take your kid off of your hands for an hour, even if they come over for just long enough for you to take a shower alone, LET THEM. It may not be an extra hour in the day, but it is an hour that you get to yourself knowing that the tiny human is being kept alive.

Cheers!