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Insisting on Solitude:
Making Time for YOU By Shel Franco
"Tell your child, 'I can't play now, but I will later.' Let them know that you will be available to them after you finish whatever you are doing," Allegra says. "You can set a timer, and tell them, when the buzzer goes off, you'll be available to play, and keep your word!"
Jennifer Jacoby-Smith, of Saskatchewan, Canada, does crafts and other creative activities with her son.
"I enjoy these things and he enjoys the contact with me," she says.
And for some women, enjoyment comes in small doses.
"When the girls were little, we'd take walks to the park, but our trips were always short," says Shelley Haggert, of Ontario, Canada, "I'd play Barbies, but again, just in short doses. I can do just about anything, in fact, as long as it's in short doses. That was the trick -- recognizing my limits. When I was forcing myself to be Wonder Mommy, no one was happy."
One of the greatest lessons a child can learn is about human diversity. People are not all the same. Just because one mom can't quite bring herself to tears of joy over a game of Hide and Seek, doesn't mean she's out of the running for "Mother of the Year."
On the contrary, some of the guiltiest moms are being admired from afar, just like Dupie. "...The do-it-all mom down the street once told me she felt she didn't measure up because she felt it a chore to read to her children because she'd rather be playing or baking with them," Dupie says.