By Amy Blakeslee
Apr 13, 2010
You know that moment when you drag yourself to the check-out counter, reach into a bag that smells vaguely of diaper wipes and frankly, diapers, only to pull out some hideous action figure instead of a wallet? That is the moment when you realize that it is time to do more than drag a comb through the front half of your hair and then give up. You need to actually take time to pamper yourself. You work hard, Mom, and it is time you reap some of the rewards. Shuffle into the bathroom, kick off those ratty slippers and mismatched socks and get ready for a little head-to-toe, me time. Your count-down to bliss starts now.
Get Ready to Pamper Yourself
Step one to your little mom-ification is simple: Announce that YOU and you alone are going to the bathroom and that it is not a family meeting. Designate responsibility to everyone for your absence: hubby watches the kids, the dog watches hubby and the cat could not care less. Everyone has their assignments? Good. Now warn them what horrible face melting horrors could happen if they so much as look at the bathroom door with both eyes at the same time, and off you go to pamper yourself.
Get Set
Head-to-toe bliss is going to require a few different items that will already be waiting for you in the bathroom. Being a mother is equal to being a boy scout in that you are always prepared. However, you can probably sew your own patches on your uniform, can’t you?
Flow
Turn on some relaxing music, and then turn it up because one of the small creatures has breached dad’s defense and is breathing outside the door. Full-on melt down is imminent. (Where is the rock star amp system when you really need it?) Light the scented candles that you do not dare have in your house with the circus that goes on every day, and start to relax. You wonder why you don't pamper yourself more often.
From the top of your head
Being a mom can be rough on your hair. Starting with pregnancy and the oddball things it can do to your hair and then on to the baby “treating” it with your own breast milk to the toddlers seeing how many cookie crumbs they can chuck into the back of mom’s hair before she notices, your hair goes through hell, doesn’t it? And it’s not like you really treat it very well.
How many non-ponytail days have you had in the last, oh, five years? Pull that band off, shake that mane loose (you can sweep up the cookies later) and treat it to whatever it needs. If it looks like you could slip through two-inch bars, then treat it as oily. If you hear rustling that is not the wind, you have dry hair. Put whatever treatment you choose on your head, slap on a shower cap to let it marinate, and move on. You have more to do to fully pamper yourself.
Ready to face the day
Moms are lucky if they take the time to slap some cold water on their face much less pamper themself. Today that changes. Grab those products out of the cabinet, blow off the dust and see if any have not expired. If you luck out, then give your self a full facial, including a relaxing face mask. If you don’t have one, try this: beat an egg until it is good and frothy and then apply it to your face in a thin layer. (It feels very strange, but not any worse than you get when dealing with a toddler.) When it dries, you rinse with warm water and you have tighter, firmer skin.
Soft as the baby’s bottom, without the rash
A typical mom-shower is about five seconds of hit and miss water and about a million seconds of “what?” as one by one your family parades in, mutters something and then wanders out. The alternative of course is the tepid, crowded family bath that typically ends with someone screeching that Cory floated one in the tub again. This time there will be stress melting water meant for an adult and only an adult. The only thing floating will be your bath sponge. You will use the sweet smelling bath soaps that you never have time for and you will love it. You will emerge from your tub, fragrant and radiant, put on lotion, get dressed and go back out, ready to face the children once again. Next time, you won't wait so long to pamper yourself!
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