A well-deserved Mom's Day Out

I'm sure a lot of you can relate when I say "Day Out". It's what everyone probably wants even just for a day, especially for MOMS. Every mom would actually want a pampering treat for themselves. But how can they go out? For working moms, weekdays are occupied with work in the office, when they get home, they are still busy preparing meals, got busy with the kids and all the mess around the house while you still need to be a wife for our husbands. Other non-working moms are busy taking care of the kids, cooking for the family, cleaning the house, doing the laundry, ironing... arrrggghhhh!!! A lot of stuff to do at home especially on a weekend, right? What can we do with it?

Sun Life Financial treats us moms with a very relaxing whole body Swedish Massage at The Spa Cebu. After a week load of work in the office and chores at home. I said, "Hey, I need this pampering once in a while, I deserve this." With my co-mommy bloggers, we enjoyed an hour of this great experience. After that comes a fulfilling meal at Laguna Cafe, bonding with other mommies and a very inspiring talk courtesy of Sun Life Financial.

MOM basically stands for "Master of Multitasking." Yes! Moms can handle more than one task at the same time. Cooking while cleaning the house and taking care of the kids while the laundry spins at the washing machine; breastfeeding and doing some office work at home, or writing a blog while commanding your house helper on what needs to be done; doing the laundry or ironing the clothes while guiding the kids on their assignments and projects. All of these and a lot more you can tell and enumerate.

Mommy Michelle Alignay, MA, RP, RGC a Family Life Specialist taught us the "Balanced Motherhood". Of course, motherhood, family, and life happen but we need to "re-balance" everything. Whilst your family is so important to you, you should take care of yourself as well.

According to her, we need the word "Self-Care" --- Self-care is the route to re-balancing and harmonizing life and motherhood. It allows you to pause, sit and be, and find ways to resyore balance. It helps you to be aware of the "message" that your parts may be out of harmony (talking about our body parts which a lot of time are aching - headache, backache etc) some of those we just don't realize that even our body is sending us a message that we should pause and relax. Self-care is re-balancing, re-freshing, and re-charging YOURSELF! Because a well-balanced mom has more to give her family!

How to carve your practical self-care? This is what I've learned.

PERCEPTION

1. Affirm your goodness.

2. Release control (of things beyond you)

3. Saying NO is okay (and needed at times)

4. Feeling happy and satisfied is normal

5. Relinquish some task that stresses you

EMOTIONS

1. During emotional highs: PAUSE

2. Ditch the guilt

3. Choose to love more

4. Be silly with the kids

5. Make your marriage matter

ACTIONS

1. Choose to rest or sleep (over cleaning up)

2. Give yourself an extra 10 minutes shower

3. Put a little color on your face

4. Find a spot to reflect

5. Find a Physical Activity

I'll just have to add the most important thing. Meditate and Pray. 

Bottomline, You need a BALANCED MOTHERHOOD. How? Sometimes you will CHOOSE TO PAY (money) for your duty. Sometimes you give time to your wishes, and sometimes to what you feel you can do. All these parts are capable of stretching, if you are self-aware and balanced, you have a guide to help you make the best choice in each situation. Yes, it is true that "we worry how our life will be tomorrow, yet we forget we are someone today."

   

Mommy Rosario Madonna Rivera talks about getting ready and saving for our future. Sun Life Financial has a TARGET-DATE FUND. To reach your destination successfully, you have to invest your money effectively over time. But if managing your own money for the next 30 years or more seems like a daunting challenge, a target-date fund (TDF) may be the solution. According to them, A TDF automatically resets the asset mix of stocks, bonds and cash equivalents in your portfolio in relation to a selected date closest to the date you plan to retire or maybe for your kids' educational fund. The closer you get to the maturity date, the more your fund will be weighted towards bonds and cash and away from stocks. This is because your investment will have less and less time to recover from any stock market volatility you may encounter, which leads many investors to prefer a more conservative approach as retirement nears.

Thank you so much, Sun Life Financial for the fun-learning and 

a well-deserved Mom's Day Out treat!

Photo credits to Ms. Rea Alducente