Every day, whether in our personal lives or the world around us, we’re reminded of exactly how short our lives may be or how little time we have left with our loved ones or how important it is to take advantage of the time we do have with those we love. Once someone dies, once people move, once life situations change, you can’t get back to life as it was before. Which is why my advice today might sound a little strange: its important to take time for yourself away from your family and loved ones, and I do mean more than just during work/school hours, I mean like taking off by yourself for a weekend.
I’m a huge believer in being a team player, and I’ve seen time and again how much stress it transfers onto other family members when they either don’t pull their weight or are out of action for a time. So I know that it’s a sacrifice for one of the adults to go away for a couple of days, and I also know that it’s hard to let kids go away to camp or with a friend for a weekend because they too play a role in helping with siblings or setting up the table or loading the dishwasher or taking care of the pets or cutting the lawn or countless other things. One way or another everyone else has to pitch in and take up the things that that one person would be doing but aren’t because they’re not there.
But again, I think it’s worth it because sometimes we need to be reminded that we’re our own person separate from the awesome family that we’re part of and all the other responsibilities we have. It’s important to be able to take a break from getting a group consensus on all things and getting everyone ready to go when it’s time and going all the places with the kids, and to just be able to move at your own pace with only your own schedule to follow. It’s also about mental health and being able to stop long enough and not have everyone needing something from you to be able to process all that’s gone on in your life, going on in your life and really think hard on decisions that you might need to make. To this point it becomes not a want or nice thing to have, but a need.
Is this a practice in your family? Have you taken a solo vacation? What has been your experience with taking a break?