I have a quandary.
Here I am, more than half-way through my two-week (stay)cation from work. Sophie is also on a two-week break. Having the time together is really nice. However, I struggle with feelings of guilt that I should be doing more activities for/with her every day. And by activities, I mean turning off Nick Jr. and the Disney movies.
This is a tough one for me. I don’t think TV is terrible and I do allow Sophie her TV time. But I do try to always have something non-TV for us to do each day that we’re home together. We cook together. She reads. We do arts and crafts. She plays in the backyard. And we usually leave the house for some type of outing nearly every day.
However, since this is also my vacation, I also want to relax, lay on the couch, and read my books. This is something I enjoyed, yet took for granted, before young Sophie’s arrival. So over our vacation time, I’ve found myself allowing Sophie to watch more TV than normal so I can enjoy my time off too.
It’s hard to find the balance between enjoying my relaxation time and making sure Sophie has enough to do as well. I don’t want to use TV as a babysitter. But I will admit that taking a 30-minute cat nap on the couch while Sophie is safely next to me watching Dora is a nice way to spend my vacation days. I mean, aren’t I entitled to some down-time and relaxation too?
Is this terrible? Am I a bad mother? Is there a happy medium? Should I get over the guilt? Ah, the joys of motherhood!