I’m heading back to my home town of Toronto in a couple of weeks and I’m taking my 5.5 year old daughter with me.

That means that I’ll be leaving behind three kids in the care of my dear husband for 2 weeks!

I’ve never gone away for this long before, and my husband has never had sole custody of three kids for this long either….so it’s going to be an interesting adventure for both of us, to say the least.

We were chatting yesterday and I told him that I have every bit of confidence that he’ll do fine. But I did warn him…

I told him that even though it seems like I pick the kids up at 3pm and “just hang out with them”, there’s a whole lot more to it than that, and he should be prepared.

He should know that it’s not just rounding the kids up and getting them home; being home with kids means managing whatever unpredictable mood each and every kid has coming my way, it’s meeting their immediate physical and emotional needs, and it’s keeping the peace among them. And all of that in just the first 15 minutes upon arrival!

So I told him, while I’m away, make sure that you get adequate sleep and make sure that you don’t pick the kids up when you’re hungry. Which is pretty basic, but so easy to forget.

But it’s not just sleep and hunger that we need to account for. 

I told him that he has to stay in touch with his own needs, both physical and emotional, and make sure they don’t fall by the wayside, so that he can be there for our kids.

But most of all, I told him to take my advice seriously, so that he doesn’t find himself overwhelmed and the kids aren’t left with a parent who is struggling to manage.

In other words, I basically gave him a crash course in self care.

Something that every parent needs to think about!

So with that in mind, I’m sharing with you a live video I recorded in The Motherhood in the Making Community Facebook group (to join the group, click here).

In this video, I talk about why self care is such a struggle, and offer a small exercise to help you connect with your needs, so you can give yourself the care that you need.