As the primary carer to babies and young children how do you practise 'self-care' and what does this expression evoke in you? Self-care is something that has become part of our language and since the outbreak of COVID-19 everyone is talking about it.
As the primary carers of young children know, finding what self-care means in such an ever-changing environment can be hard. Our approaches to self-care before children may have been in ways we now don't have time for. Whether that was heading to the gym or cinema, catching up with friends or sitting down to read a book. Now with such a full-time job of caring for another, our self-care gets forgotten. Add to this becoming pregnant, the idea may feel impossible.
In this place of self-sacrifice, it is important to find time for self-care to recharge some of our batteries. To be able to achieve this we need to accept that someone else will most likely need to step in, while we step out. Some of our self-care may have to change, we may not be able to do what we have done before. Ultimately it is about being open to ideas and ways of looking after ourselves that we may not have tried.
Par of our self-care is to ensure we are giving ourselves what we need. When we become aware of the 'niggle' that says something isn't right, we owe it to ourselves to see understanding at a deeper level. Therapy provides a platform to enable this.
Written for Darling Magazine Wimbledon, September - November 2020 edition