Journaling is Self Care for Moms

Journaling is self-care for moms. Hear me out!

There’s no role in life that you’ll ever have that is more important than that of being a mom. From the moment we make the decision to journey into motherhood, our lives are forever changed.

I’ll never forget finding out I was pregnant with my daughter. It was a truly scary, truly magical moment.

What do you mean I’m going to be responsible for another human for the rest of their life?

I have to feed them every day?

Make sure they have clothes?

Keep a roof over their heads?

At the time that seemed pretty excessive!

Oh, and at that point, I hadn’t even thought about the actual physicality of motherhood.

Sleepless nights, leaky boobs, weird things happening in my vagina.

And that’s just the first week.

There was a silver lining, though.

That sweet face I got to gaze into while I was up late at night when everyone else was sleeping made it all worth it.

Every diaper change gave me a chance to rub on a soft little belly.

I love being able to experience those really sweet moments to be had even through the chaos.

There will be lots of chaos.

The first few times I took Jamie out when he was a newborn went perfectly.

I felt like I was living my regular life, just with a baby when he was little.

Then I got too confident. I decided to take him on a quick errand and left the diaper bag at home.

Since we were only going to be gone for an hour, I figured we’d be fine.

Wouldn’t you know that was the day of his first blowout diaper?

There was poop everywhere! Jamie’s entire outfit was soaked!

His car seat was destroyed, and I just stood next to my car in the parking lot where I had just pulled in with my mouth wide open.

I couldn’t even begin to wrap my mind around how to fix this mess.

I cracked up until tears were falling down my cheeks after I got everything cleaned up!

Our first blowout was one for the record, and memory, books.

See what I mean? Straight chaos!

There are so many memories that we have as mothers that we don’t cherish in the same way we do the perfect moments.

Treasured memories really are made from our ups and downs. 

I know that I’m a great mom but there are days when I don’t feel like it.  

Days when the whining and crying are nonstop, I just don’t feel like playing pretend, my mental health is struggling, and all we have for dinner is carbs.

Or ice cream (true story).

That’s why I think it’s so important to reflect and write down my feelings and emotions when I’m in the moment.

Why should moms keep a journal?

No matter how often I get covered in poop (or vomit, or blood…) there are just as many times when my babies cover me with hugs and kisses. I want to remember it all.

That’s why I’m a huge advocate for moms journaling.

Keeping track of what happens in your life on a daily basis might not seem important now, but when the kiddos are headed off to college and you’re feeling all empty-nesty, you’ll appreciate being able to go back.

I know that there are communities and movements that are committed to journaling that can make it feel like it’s more work than it is.

You don’t have to make it hard.

Just grab a notebook, and write.

Don’t worry about spelling or grammar. You don’t have to have a certain number of words.

Your penmanship doesn’t matter.

All you need to be concerned with is getting those moments down on paper before you forget them.

Oh, and one big tip I have for you about journaling—you don’t have to write in real-time.

If you have a memory that pops up and you haven’t written it down, do it now.

I’ve also used prompts to get my brain moving. 

Self-care journal prompts for moms to get you started:

1. What is a milestone that your child hit that made your parenting job more difficult? What did you do to adjust?
2. What are some ways that you sneak self-care for yourself? How do you pull it off?
3. How do you spend your evenings now that you’re a mom?
4. Do you look forward to bedtime, or is it a struggle? What does bedtime look like in your home?
5. What is something you’ve done as a mom that you said you would never do?
6. What’s something you used to think was gross before you were a mom, but now you’re actually used to?

I never imagined how fast my children would grow up.

I can’t keep them little forever.

One day they’re going to be all grown up and they’ll leave me to start their own families.

Those memories, though?

They’re here to stay.

Want a journal to do with your daughter? Check out my book Just Us Girls: A Shared Journal for Moms and Daughters!

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