Taking time for yourself may seem selfish, but it is actually one of the most selfless things you can do. Everyone needs a chance to recharge their batteries, pamper themselves, meditate, create something beautiful just for the passion of it, eat something delicious that no one takes a bit of. Most of us spend so much of life giving ourselves to work, friends, family, children, that you become so drained of life force you go to bed feeling like a flaccid penis.

Whenever I have time away from The Munch it is never to relax and stare into the third eye of the cosmos, but rather alone moments morph into a few hours of tornado like activity. After my cyclone of my endeavors ceases and I again become responsible for keeping my toddler alive, I am then transported into her storm of constant commotion. Of course I also have all the other relationships in life that demand love, attention, and time so why not pick my scalp until it bleeds?

I started to realize that this is not the best parenting strategy on my part because when I feel like this, I also end up letting The Munch participate in totally demented behavior because I don’t have the energy to discipline her. For instance, she was insisting on carrying her toilet up the stairs as I was getting everything ready for her bath. I told her “no,” and explained that it was dangerous and tried to take the toilet away, but she screamed in my face. I figured that the stairs were carpeted, and I had put pillows on the floor by the base of the stairs for a reason, so I kept living my life and got her pajamas together.

Or this morning The Munch got a hold of my Chapstick and started smearing it all over her face. I tried to get her to give it to me, but she was having too much fun with it and would run away from me every time I got close enough to snatch it. I knew if I ripped it from her hands she would kick my ass, so I again decided to just keep living my life and continued to do the dishes. Of course she ended up eating the Chapstick, but I figured it was organic shea butter and would maybe be a nice digestive aid.

So from now on I am going to try and take a little more time to do something healing for myself because in the end it is really so I can be a better person, friend, worker, parent… and not let my child eat 4 popsicles in one day.

See… those are nice soft stairs right????