Doing What You Love as a Parent Matters
What with cooking meals, changing diapers, doing the laundry, reading stories, and answering the question “why?” 258 times, asking if it’s possible to have hobbies as a parent may seem like a rhetorical question. How can you ever find time for doing what you love with everything else that needs to be done in a day?
My answer to that question? You make time for what matters.
If spending time with your kids reading stories and building Lego or block towers is important to you, you’ll somehow manage to find time for it. If being outside is important you’ll figure out a way to keep the house running while also managing your garden or sipping your coffee with a book in hand while the kids play. When something is important to you, you make time for it. The same goes for hobbies.
What It Looks like For ME
Every evening during the week, around 8:00pm, I head up to my sewing room for a hour of quiet sewing. Sometimes I have a podcast on in the background. Sometimes I work in silence. There are evenings when the kids are still awake and I can hear them talking and giggling together in their room. Other times they’re quiet minutes after they’ve been tucked in.
Do I always get a full uninterrupted hour? No. In fact, most days I don’t. But even if I only get 15 or 20 minutes of quiet sewing time, it’s still enough to help me wind down after a busy day with the kids. In a season where I am constantly having to pour into other, smaller people with little time to myself, those 15, 20, 60 minutes go a long way in refilling my cup.
Not only that, but it’s a way for me to grow a skill that I also use to serve my family. I’ve saved us a fair amount of money making my own clothes instead of buying them. I’ve also learned how to mend our clothes and keep them going longer. My daughter especially gets so excited when I tell her I’m making something new for her.
You Don’t Need to Give It All Up When You Have Kids
If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a hundred times that when you become a parent you’re life is over. As a mom of three, almost four kids, I find this to be totally wrong. In fact, in some ways, my life started after I had kids. Watching them learn how to crawl, how to walk, how to say their first word. Seeing the world through their eyes, the wonder they have over the simplest thing. It changes the way you look at things.
The same goes for my hobby of sewing. I see it differently than I would if I didn’t have kids. It has forced me to be more efficient, more intentional with my time. Grabbing five minutes while they are happy playing to pin something together. Getting started on the next step of a pattern while they wind down to sleep in the next room. It’s also not just something I do for fun because I enjoy it. It is one of the few things I do in a day just for me. Something that is mine that I can pour my creativity into because I want to, not because I need to.
You can do this too. Whether your hobby is sewing, knitting, hiking, reading, cooking. You don’t have to give it up once you have children. You just need to change what it looks like. Maybe you need to bring your kids into your hobby, or set it up so they can play alongside you. Maybe you just need to change the timing of when you invest in your hobby. But you don’t need to give it up completely. In fact, you shouldn’t.
Why It Matters
Motherhood requires a lot of you. It means being constantly available, day or night. Being able to help someone regulate their emotions even when yours are all over the place. Keeping track of appointments and outings and school assignments while also running a home and everything that entails. If you think motherhood is easy, I’d ask if you have any kids.
That’s why I believe hobbies a parent are so important. Because you need that something that lights you up after a long, hard day. You need a space where you can do something just for you because you love it. If you don’t, you’re more likely to burn out or end up feeling like you’re losing yourself inside motherhood. As wonderful and fulfilling as motherhood is, it can feel like it takes over who we are or once were. So don’t feel guilty about pursuing something you enjoy. You’re doing it for them as much as you are for you.
Wishing you all the best on your journey through motherhood,
