Great Escape: Downtime for Moms

My relaxation recommendation for the week is to take a half-hour in the middle of the day with your kids.  It sounds counterintuitive, but sometimes when you relax together, the rest of the day is much easier on everyone! Trust me: You will miss that special time with them when they are older.

Many years ago when my husband and I picked up our kids from my mother-in-law, she said, “When you get home, ask the kids to show you what I taught them.”  OK, that made me just a little nervous.

The next day, I asked them to show me (realize my kids were 4 and 6 at the time). To my surprise, the kids got little chairs out of their bedrooms, put them at the base of my bed and asked me to lie down. 

Based on the instructions I received, I gathered I was to hang my feet over the bed. The next thing I knew, they were starting to rub my feet! Wow! Bless my mother-in-law for such an ingenious concept. 

It was an incredibly gooey mess. Naturally, my 6-year-old used my most expensive facial cream.  Of course, I did not notice until it was half gone. But my feet felt wonderful for a week!

Later, we played games, and I painted my daughter's nails. Granted, it was not Burke Williams or  But it was downtime for everyone and our half-hour escape in the middle of the day.