Part 2: Why It’s Vital to Take PTO as a Mom
When was the last time you actually took SCHEDULED time off work?
Don’t worry, I’ll wait. Just take a little looksee through your phone. Now your paper calendar.
Are you calling your mom?!
Yeah, I can wait a bit longer.
Can I have some water please!? (hee hee…but am I exaggerating?)
I get it. Taking time off is scary.
A lot of times taking a vacation doesn’t really solve anything. It’s stressful coming back to whatever you’re going to come back to…which usually isn’t great. So the relaxation you may have just allowed yourself to have is now undone by the hot mess you’re walking into your first day back.
And sometimes the prep to going on vacation is extremely stressful as well.
It’s truly no wonder we just keep working through the stress and burnout.
Who Am I?
Hi! I’m MacKenzie, your Self-Care Mompanion. I’m a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and owner of Follow Your Arrow Counseling, LLC. I work with Moms and Therapist Moms who are stressed out, overwhelmed and not taking care of themselves as well as they take care of everyone else. I speak from experience as I’m a Mom, too.
Being a Mom is hard. There are some days I really don’t like it, to be honest. There are days I don’t like having to deal with some of the parts of motherhood…like being blamed for everything, ignored and not being appreciated. Thank goodness there are other moments when my daughter tells me I’m her best friend that make up for all the crappy moments.
Stick around and join me as we walk this road of motherhood together. It truly takes a village to raise our kids… and maintain our sanity.
There Are Many Reasons We Take Time Off Work As Moms.
The sad reality is that not many of the reasons are solely for us. These reasons can range from:
sick
kids
travel to see family
vacation
holiday
staycation
self care / personal growth & development
I encourage you to think for a few moments about which of those categories gets the majority of your days off?
Which One(s) Truly Benefit You?
If we had to guess, wouldn’t it make sense that you taking time off is due to something regarding your kids? It’s rarely because we’re sick ourselves. Hell no, we work from home in between coughing and naps, if we can. But if our babies are sick, we are the ones to stay home and take care of them.
Then there are the holidays. Well, the kids are off school so that makes sense that we’re also home, too, if we can be.
Why would we take time off for a staycation? That’s crazytalk, MacKenzie!
Why are we so stingy with our time off…time we’ve earned and are entitled to?
Changing Our PTO Mentality
In Part 1 of this series, we talked about how actually using your PTO can help combat burnout, create more fulfilling time with your family and improve your work. Those are three excellent reasons to make PTO a pretty active part of your schedule. But they aren’t good enough to help our country - or us as individuals - create a different mentality about PTO.
There’s a great deal of mom guilt that creeps into our minds when we have this discussion. Yep, I get it, too. We feel guilty for “choosing” to work instead of staying home with our kids. Even if we wouldn’t be a great stay-at-home parent (I know this about myself), there is still guilt heaped on us by society and ourselves. It’s hard to move beyond that and at the same time, it’s important to recognize how vital taking PTO is for our physical wellbeing and our mental health.
I want to hear from you on this. Please go to FB or IG or send me an email and let me know what’s the biggest barrier for you in taking well-deserved time away from the office. How can you begin to change your mentality about PTO so it’s not such a chore?
