Wasted Time- Any regrets?

I find it funny to hear when people who don't have kids say "I am so busy, I have no time" and remember the days where I would say the same. These people could be legitimately busy, I'm not discounting that. But try throwing in a baby, or two, or six in my friend's case, and tell me that that's not what busy looks like!

Looking back on my twenties I feel like I wasted all my free time on sleeping in excessively, dating the wrong guys, going out too much, not going to the gym...sigh...if only I knew then what I know now, my life then would have been so different- but that would mean my life now would be so different; and I quite like my life. We don't really assess our bad decisions or time wasted while we are young and "in it" until we are on the other side looking in. We only then realize that time is so precious and the following day is not a guarantee. So, would I really have changed anything back then? Was all that time spent meaningless? Probably not, so, in that case, I have learned what I've done has shaped my present and my future.

I am learning to prioritize my activities and my free time because I feel as though I have so little of it because I feel as though the time I have is so precious and I don't want to waste it. I have created a daily routine for myself that allows me to do spontaneous activities while still being able to take a shower and even put on my makeup before leaving the house in the morning. Baking with my eldest daughter every Saturday morning (which happily, has become a weekend tradition for us) is far more important than taking the same amount of time to straighten my hair. Or putting baby C in her in her jolly jumper while I do a 20 minute cardio workout in my living room is not as important to me as having her practice sitting up on her own while I lay beside her doing crunches, or better yet, use her as weight while I do an arm work out or better yet, squats. I am not saying that forgetting about taking care of myself is the trade off, but for me personally, there are other priorities now; and I am 100% happy with the path I took to get me here.

My husband and I are very fortunate to have his mother be so involved with taking care of our girls, that we have adopted a weekly date night. Sometimes, if we are really organized and plan ahead, we can have both girls stay the night with her and have a sleep over so that we have a date night and a sleep in the next morning. I miss those days of sleeping in, but the "return on investment" or ROI is much greater than a lengthy snooze on a weekend. I find that I value my free time much more now that I have a family with two young kids. It has given me a different perspective on my life and on who I am.

xo