In 2008, I became the Mom of a sweet boy, who changed my life, my world, my everything. The amount of patience that I discovered, was a big eye-opener. It had been one of my biggest fears, as I watched parents interact with their kids, with infinite amounts of patience. I wondered - how do they do it and how am I going to do it, the most impatient person I know? And, then, you meet your little bundle of joy and you realize that your heart feels like it will burst at any second and patience is suddenly available, in endless amounts. At least, that was my experience then. Of course, having my daughter, 20 months later, kind of changed the amount of patience I had, but it still existed.

But, as the kids have grown and are now 8 and 6 years old, I've realized that many days, I am at my wits end. Many days, I find myself yelling that we aren't getting ready for school fast enough, the homework isn't getting done properly or that bedtime isn't happening on time.

I realized, as the year was coming to an end that my patience had run out. But, what was depleting my patience? Me; because I wasn't giving myself a break. I realized that it doesn't have to happen exactly as planned and being late to school, taking an extra day to complete homework and going to bed late is okay.

I have realized that I was giving everyone else around me a break, except for myself. So, I relaxed my own self-rules and started to eat better, gave myself time to sit down and read a book, began setting a bedtime for myself and have learned to give myself the luxury of sleep, after so many years of living on 4 or 5 hours of sleep.

So, as 2017 is now here, I am making it my parent mission to take care of me, first because it ultimately benefits my family, the most. Getting sleep, exercise, time to myself and time with my husband as well as friends means that I am giving myself the permission to take care of me. And, that benefits the whole family!