Simple and Achievable Weekly Self Care Routine For Busy Mums

A weekly self care routine for busy Mums, is that even a thing?!

I’ve asked myself that so many time

So. Many. Times!

I’d love to tell you that I’m the kind of Mum who has devoted their entire life, their whole day, to their kids.

But I’m just not.

After a while, I run on empty, and suddenly I’m not showing up as the kind of Mum that I’d like to be.

And that’s not cool for anybody, is it?

Eventually I had a chat with myself and got a few things straight:

1. I am more patient when I have had some time for myself, to recharge my batteries.
2. I want my kids to learn that if they need to take some time to reset, to balance their mental health, then they should prioritise it and not feel guilty.
3. I work bloody hard as a Mum with a full time job. I deserve rest and time to myself.

I want you to read those again, please.

Really read each word and absorb it.

Finding time to implement a self care routine for busy mums can sometimes feel impossible, but prioritising self-care is crucial for maintaining a healthy mind and body.

But this won’t happen unless you MAKE IT HAPPEN.

And if you follow along with me then you will know by now, that means you need a PLAN.

Establishing a weekly self-care routine can be a game-changer for busy Mums, so let’s go through some simple & effective self-care practices that could help you relax and recharge even during the most hectic weeks.

Establishing a self care routine for busy Mums

1. Get Moving (Your Way)

We all know that exercise is essential for maintaining a healthy body, but it’s also an important aspect of a self care routine for busy Mums… and increased patience!

Physical activity also releases endorphins (natural chemicals that help to reduce stress and boost mood), so you’ll feel generally more cheerful if you get regular exercise, and this will be noticeable to your kids.

Finding the time to exercise may feel impossible when you’ve got a long to-do list, but start small! Even a 20-minute walk or a yoga class can make a huge difference in how you feel.

It might be okay for you to exercise with your kids around you, getting them involved too. But it might also be important for you to exercise without your kids, to enjoy that time of separation just for yourself. Either way, this is ok.

Finding out what works for you, what motivates you, what time of the day you feel works best and how you set yourself up for exercise are essential points before you can plan it into your week. This goes for ALL parts of planning a self care routine for busy Mums, to be honest!

Later in this post I’ll share how I make SURE that I have time for exercise each week.

2. Evaluate your sleep

When you’re busy, it’s easy to sacrifice sleep to get more done. But getting enough sleep is essential to having enough patience to deal with a meltdown after you gave your toddler the red spoon, when in fact they wanted the… red spoon..?!

Sleep should be the foundation of any self care routine for busy mums.

We all know that adults are “supposed” to get at least 7-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep each night.

(I can hear you laughing from here. I’m laughing with you. Actually I’m just crying but let’s pretend it’s laughter).

Prioritise your sleep schedule by setting yourself a bed time (just like you would set for your kids) and stick to it!

Create a bedtime routine to help you wind down at night, too. You can’t go straight to sleep after having run around all day after your kids, fulfilling 7 million requests for snacks and cleaning the kitchen.

Your brain needs a chance to switch off. Trial and error will work here until you can find out what works for you (a nightly gin & tonic may well work for you, but sadly, I should really not advise that!).

3. Take breaks every day

Every day?!

EVERY DAY!

First of all, single Mama’s, I hear your exasperation. Whilst I do have a partner, he works shifts and also spends large amounts of time away training with the Military, so I do appreciate how hard it is to find time to rest when you are the only adult in the house for long periods of time.

It’s incredibly difficult.

But it IS possible.

I can’t tell you when this magic moment might be in your day as it will be different for everyone, you just need to find the sweet spot for your kids.

I know that if I can set up a little loose parts activity for my toddler whilst the baby naps, then she will give me 10 minutes before she wants to pester me again.

During this time I tell her I am going to sit in the other room with a coffee by myself for a little while. She’s happy with this (for a while).

It may only get me 5 minutes, who knows, but it’s TIME TO MYSELF. It’s a small reset.

Don’t feel guilty for this. I promise you will show up better for your kids afterwards, and they will be all the happier for it.

And so will you.

(I have also been known to take my coffee to the bathroom and drink it whilst sat in a dry bath as my toddler watches an episode of Bluey in the other room- needs must & all that).

Taking little snippets of time from your day helps to create a more achievable self care routine for busy mums.

4. Ditching social media

In order to build a healthy self care routine for busy Mums, we also need to examine our bad habits and routines…

Social media and screens are often demonised, but I think they can be both good and bad.

They can help you stay connected with loved ones (which is great, especially when you feel isolated as a new Mum) or get lost in hours of scrolling, which isn’t always the best way to recharge.

Set yourself some ‘rules’ for when you will sit and indulge in a scroll-session. This stops you from feeling the need to pick up your phone every 5 minutes, and also makes your scroll- session more guilt free! There’s nothing wrong with scrolling social media, you just need to tame the beast a little.

As a new Mum a few years ago I found it hard to browse Instagram. I had a baby that didn’t seem to like sleep, and Instagram was showing me what felt like hundreds of accounts around sleep training. I didn’t want to sleep train, but seeing so much content on it made it seem like I should.

I decided to seek out some accounts that help with baby sleep that didn’t align with sleep training, and filled my feed with those instead. The content on these accounts supported my own parenting instincts and helped to keep me buoyant.

After a particularly tricky nap or bed time I would actually seek out these accounts, specifically to remind myself of why I’m taking this approach, and that it’s okay and it will work!

I highly recommend ONLY following social media accounts that make you feel supported and more buoyant, and unfollow anything that does not align with you. Being a Mum is hard enough, without feeling judged by a faceless internet.

(FYI, if you’re interested, my favourite “gentle” baby sleep account on Instagram is @heysleepybaby. She’s just excellent.)

5. Enjoy a bath or ‘Hollywood shower’ alone

In our house, a longer than necessary, luxurious shower is called a “Hollywood shower”.

My partner and I suggest one to each other at the end of a particularly stressful day. There is something nice about having a shower alone when normally you have a toddler in there with you and a baby sat in the bouncer on the bathroom floor!

And the other best thing about a Hollywood shower? The white noise of the water means you can’t hear the kids or the baby kicking off! So you feel less pressure to rush what you’re doing to go and help out.

It really is a few minutes for your brain to tune out of household life, which is surely the ultimate aspect of a self care routine for busy Mums?!

As for a bath, you don’t have to spend a lot of money on expensive spa treatments to feel refreshed and rejuvenated.

Even if you use your kids bubble bath and find a rubber duck floating past half way through, you have still taken time for yourself to rest your body.

At the end of the day, we all deserve to be able to keep ourselves clean. We all do our best to make time for this every day anyway, so perhaps just add a few minutes to the process a few times a week to make it an enjoyable moment. This can transform a shower into a vital aspect of a self care routine for busy mums, instead of more of a chore on your to-do list.

Time for a face mask

I also made a promise to myself that I would put a face mask on every Sunday. Clearly, when you have kids, this easier said than done.

But I made myself a promise and I make it work. I now put my mask on whilst I bath the kids on a Sunday evening, then wash it off just before I get them out.

It’s not time alone, it’s not particularly relaxing, but I’m giving my skin a treat and I’ll thank myself when I’m older!

The point is, you need to find a way to look after your mind and your body, and sometimes that means doing it alongside looking after your kids (and sometimes it means ditching the kids entirely and doing it alone!). Work out how to get things done your own way.

6. Yoga and meditation

Ugh. This one is ALWAYS on self-care lists, isn’t it?

Have you ever tried to meditate when you are around a toddler? Absolute madness. It’s likely to make you MORE stressed, not less.

So let’s try to hack the system, it’s what I do best.

The most obvious answer is to get someone to have the kids whilst you do some yoga & meditate or do it during nap time or after bed time.

But what if you can’t do this or want to use this time for other leisure activities?

Yoga can be done alongside your kids, fairly successfully. Toddlers love trying to copy you, and babies like to watch you. Older kids will probably be content with watching telly for a bit to let you crack on.

But meditation when you have kids running around? That’s a different kettle of fish entirely.

So let’s adjust our expectations of meditation instead.

Meditation may seem like an impossible part of a self care routine for busy Mums, but I promise you, it isn’t. 

Walking into the kitchen to count ten long, deep breaths? That counts.

Closing your eyes, standing still and feeling the ground support your weight under your feet for a few minutes? That counts.

Chewing your food slowly and appreciating the flavours and textures in your mouth whilst you eat lunch? That counts.

Counting your child’s eye lashes whilst you hold their hand as they fall asleep for nap time? That counts.

Encouraging your child to stop next to a tree with you on a walk to listen to the sound of the leaves rustling in the wind for a few moments? That counts.

Spending an extra few minutes in the toilet to recentre your mind before you head back out? That counts.

Standing next to the kettle and watching it boil, the amount of steam leaving the spout gradually increasing, watching the shapes made by the steam in the air? That counts.

Many of these small moments add up throughout the day, and bring you more mindfulness overall.

You don’t have to sit for three hours on a floor cushion in order to have practised mindfulness or meditation.

And remember that this season will soon end and you’ll have time before you know it to sit on a floor cushion for three hours in silence.

But today, for now, you need to manage your expectations and make it all MANAGEABLE.

A number of small mindful moments every day can really boost your mental well-being and overall stress levels.

And none of us can sniff at that!

7. Read a book

I’m normally a non-fiction reader. I don’t usually like to read ‘stories’.

But when life gets busy, I get the urge to escape.

And whilst I can’t (and don’t actually want to) run out of the door to the nearest airport, I do want to escape for a little while.

Be somewhere else.

And this is when I get the urge to read a good story.

So consider reading a fiction book in the evening before bed to transport you somewhere else other than your living room with toys everywhere.

Just for a little while.

8. Get outdoors

Mama, just go for a walk.

Grab your kids and get outside.

Do whatever you need to get them out the house (scooter, bike, snacks – always lots of snacks) whatever you need, just grab it and get out there.

There will be meltdowns. There may be scuffed knees and tears. But even still, I promise that you will feel so much better after your walk.

And sometimes, the kids just need to get out of the house. They seem to go a little stir crazy after being inside for a while…

9. Keep a journal for your kids

When we read blog posts about self care, we often see the advice to journal.

I’m going to put it out there; most people don’t have the time and inclination to journal regularly, let alone a busy Mum!

Also, what do you write?! I feel as though my days are made up of making endless snacks and changing nappies!

For the first 16 weeks after my kids are born I’ve written them both a short weekly journal entry. Just an A5 page in a notebook, nothing fancy, just a short recount of the week and how I’m feeling. I write it in letter style to them, so they can read it back when they are older.

I find this really helpful because of course I only want to be positive in this journal to them. I want them to read it back and FEEL how much I love them through my words. As such, it makes me think about all the positives of the week and the happy times, the lovely feelings.

It’s easy to get bogged down in the monotony of every day with kids, and to feel swamped and overwhelmed.

I find this quick journal practice so helpful to maintain some perspective and appreciate the beautiful moments of the week. Probably not what you expected to see in an article about a self care routine for busy mums, but I promise it’ll give you all the warm and fuzzy feels!

Now, how can you make time for all this?!

We have essentially already covered this above, but let me summarise a few options for making time for a self care routine for busy Mums:

1. Manage your expectations of what you can achieve or how you might be able to achieve it. Putting a face mask on whilst you bath the kids is a good example of this.
2. 
   

   Split it up into manageable chunks. If you want to get fit, try doing 40 air squats every time you change a nappy. Or running next to your toddler when you take her out to use her scooter.

3. 
   

   Let someone else take the kids from you. Even if just for half an hour. Schedule that time in with this person (be it your partner, parents, in-laws, friend, whoever you trust to care for your kids) and make a plan with them. Even if you are only comfortable leaving your exclusively breast-fed baby for half an hour; that’s okay!

4. 
   

   Use nap times and evenings WISELY. That means not cramming all your chores into these times- you can do chores with your kids when they are awake. When the kids are asleep, this is your time to do what makes your heart SING.

Summarising the self care routine for busy mums

It’s essential to create a weekly self care routine for busy Mums to maintain physical, emotional, and mental health.

Spend some time using a little creativity and prioritisation to fit self-care practices into even the busiest schedule.

Remember, taking care of yourself is not just a luxury but a necessary part of life. Make time for yourself and leave the rest behind.

This is you now, Mama.

You deserve this.