Motherhood is a gift. The kind of gift that changes your life in the most beautiful yet demanding ways. You love your children with every fibre of your being, a love so deep it lives in your bones, in every heartbeat, in every exhausted but willing breath you take. They are your world, and you would move mountains for them.
But sometimes?
Sometimes you just need five minutes where no one calls your name. Where no sticky hands reach for you, where no questions demand answers, where the weight of motherhood lifts just long enough for you to remember who you are beneath it all.
Let’s be clear: needing that doesn’t make you ungrateful. It doesn’t mean you love them any less. It means you are human, a woman pouring from a cup that never stops being asked to overflow.
Motherhood is a relentless kind of giving. It’s breakfasts made and tears wiped and laundry folded and stories read and battles fought, all before noon. It’s loving so hard it hurts, while also wondering where you went in the middle of it all. That missing yourself? That ache for quiet? That’s not failure. That’s the cost of devotion.
So take the break. However small. However simple.
Close the bathroom door and breathe. Let the dishes sit. Leave the laundry in the basket. Sit in your car for three extra minutes before walking inside. Say no to one thing so you can say yes to yourself.
You are allowed to pause. You are allowed to miss who you were and honor who you’re becoming. You are allowed to love your children and crave space. That’s not contradiction, it’s balance.
Because the truth is, you cannot give what you do not have. And you, mama, deserve the same tenderness you offer everyone else.
So take the five minutes. Take the deep breath. Take the nap. Take the walk. The world will not fall apart.
And when you come back? You’ll still be their everything. But you’ll also be a little more you and that is the greatest gift you could ever give them.