Mama’s Day Out: Time for My ‘Selves’

I rarely indulge in self portraits, but a professional makeup job had to be documented!

Now that my daughter is 13+ months old, I feel more and more comfortable leaving her for short periods of time when she’s in good hands. (As opposed to before when I would have panic attacks. Literally. Still need to share that story…) But it’s still weird when I have that extra pair of  hands and am able to get out of the house for a few hours.

My mother-in-law was in town recently, so I made plans to make good on an invite to the Artistry beauty lounge at Fashion Week. (Wow, that sounds so posh. And it was. A far cry from my typical drool-filled day.) While I was in NYC, I decided that I might as well hit up a cardio class I’d been invited to ages ago. It’s a class I’d been actively planning to try out since May. Yeah. May. But I just could never quite get life lined up to make it into the city. To top it all off? Since I’d be in the city already and we had an oh-so-rare babysitter (and our daughter goes to bed at 6:30 p.m., making babysitting duties pretty laid-back after that point), my husband met me for dinner in NYC. It felt like Date Night, without all of the drama.

As I said, my first stop was the Artistry lounge, where I was introduced to the company’s beauty products, including this kick-ass light-up lip gloss with a mirror. I received a chair massage, where I learned just how much I needed a massage. The knots! Goodness. I got a paraffin hand treatment. And I even got pampered with a face of makeup. (Note to those in the cardio class: I don’t typically attend workout classes with that much makeup on!) It felt really nice to be pampered for a bit and to just get out of my daily routine. Plus, the weather was absolutely perfect, so walking around the city was really enjoyable.

So the pampering was a success. The cardio class was really fun. My husband even noticed the makeup that didn’t melt during class and my spa-like smell over my sweat. The only hiccup was that the restaurant I’d picked was very much closed, maybe permanently, so we had to tuck into a random pub. It didn’t ruin the night, though. We usually get Chipotle to go as a “night out,” so just sitting down for a meal without worrying about a baby meltdown was nice.

The whole day was a perfect mesh of all of my selves—my work self, my married self, my mom self—and a good reminder that every mom needs time to herself now and then. It’s refreshing to get a break in the routine, whether you’re enjoying a chair massage or simply taking a trip to Target by yourself. I wear my mom suit so much that it was nice to be reminded of my other versions, to step away for a bit. To be reminded that I’m more than Avery’s mom, more than the diaper-changer and grocery getter. I’m a wife! A friend! I have a really cool job! These reminders of our other “selves” only serve to help when, as moms, we must strap on the mom bootstraps and wipe another runny nose or clean another highchair tray. Because while there are many, many joys of motherhood, runny noses and dirty highchairs aren’t them. So make yourself a priority. Let us not be blinded by our parental duties and forget our kick-ass selves!

Do you feel rejuvenated when you get time to yourself? Do you feel it makes you a better mom? —Erin