Self-Care Mummy Blog Series - Week 5

This New Year I’m talking all about Self-Care as a mum and how important it is to take that time for us. Every week I’ll be bringing you a new guest blog post with some top tips and hopefully throughout the next few months we’ll have put together an amazing list of different ideas for self-care.

This week is Kerry Reilly from Kerry Reilly Photography.

Tell us a bit about yourself - who you are, what you do and a bit about your family:

I'm Kerry. I live in my hometown of Fleetwood with my partner of ten years and our three children Rupert (3yo), Xavier (1yo) and Mary (4mo). As you can imagine we have a complete mad house, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I love being a Mum to my three little people, and I love watching them grow and learn new things.

I have a beautiful photography studio along Fleetwood Promenade that I have had for five years now, where I specialise in baby and family portraiture. This is my sanctuary away from an extremely hectic family life. Most people can't wait to get home from a stressful day at work but I actually find coming to work calming and I love what I do so I consider myself very lucky in that way. I invest almost all of my time on the kids, keeping a relatively tidy house, working on my business and a half attempt at a social life.

What do you do for self-care as a mum and how do you make time for self-care?

If you had asked me before I had the kids what I do for self care I would have 100% told you it would consist of a long lie in, followed by a full day in my Pjs watching episode of FRIENDS, eating whatever I wanted, a long bath, and then bed where I would spend a couple of hours reading before drifting off. 

Now I don't even get a chance for day like that-not even on my birthday! 

Life as a Mum is completely different to what I knew before and it has been SO DIFFICULT to adjust. My idea of self-care has massively changed. I make sure I am eating a well balanced diet-so important as when I am rushing around sorting the kids I am much more prone to not eating anything and then grabbing high calorie snacks to keep me going throughout the day. Thus resulting in me eating one meal a day-and usually that would be a sandwich. I have had to make meal prepping a priority for myself. I have also joined a gym with a creche-so I can book the kids in for a full two hours-go to the gym for one and then use their shower facilities and actually manage to wash! 

I can't believe I am describing eating well, going to the gym and having time for a decent shower as self-care. But to me at this moment in my life that is what it is. It gives me energy, makes me feel in control and makes me feel good about myself.

What are your three top tips for self-care for mums?

1. Do not feel guilty or selfish for leaving your children in the care of others to spend time on yourself. You can not pour from an empty cup.

2. Make friends with other Mums, especially if most of your friends don't have children. Meet up with them on a regular basis and complain to each other about how hard being a Mum is. Because it is hard, and you need to know that you are not the only one feeling this way and it is perfectly normal.

3. “Don’t compare your behind-the-scenes to everyone else’s highlight reel.” Please please completely disregard how you think other people are doing-especially on social media. Nobody will openly share that they are defeated by a three year old almost every single day of their lives-instead they will share a photo of the 3 whole minutes they spent painting/baking/playing together that day.

Are there any products/businesses/podcasts ect that you would recommend for self-care?

Not to everybody's taste but I would recommend following Constance Hall on Facebook-she's funny, she's honest and I like her style. It's just something fun to read that feels very relatable. 
Have a look for gyms that offer creche services-that way you can have some 'you time' without waiting for your partner to finish work or having to ask a relative to watch the kids. YMCA has been great for me in my area. 
If you're struggling to read I would recommend audio books-you can listen while you make tea, feed the baby, put the washing over the maiden...all those jobs where you tend to zone out can be turned into something that's a little bit more for you...kind of.

You can see more of Kerry over at:

Website | Facebook | Instagram

I hope you enjoyed reading this lovely guest blog post by Kerry all about self-care as a mum! Be sure to check out the blog next week for another guest blog post all about self-care!

Have a lovely day!

Emma x

If you would love to take part in this blog series please head to our website here!