When I am out and about with my three little bundles of joy, someone always has to comment that "I must be busy!" I just laugh and say "Yup." But really, it seems kind of silly to me. I was plenty busy when I had two kids. I was even pretty busy when I just had one kid. When I first had Travis I had some older people tell me "You aren't really a parent until you have two." I'm pretty sure I shot this 9 pounder out, so I'm pretty sure I was a parent. But, whatever!
Probably the biggest thing I hear from other mothers is that they just don't have the time to get out and run or exercise, or it's just too hard because they don't have anyone to watch the kids, or really any other number of excuses you can think of. As I've said before, I'm on a running streak, so that means I try to run at least 30 minutes every day. I am pretty lucky in that I have a supportive husband who will watch the kids whenever he is not working, and I also have friends who love my kids and will watch them also. I try very hard not to over use this luxury, after all, 3 kids is 3 kids.
So here is how I try to get in my runs....
Whenever possible I push the kids in the baby jogger. I have a double jogger, so I try to do this while Travis is at school. If it doesn't work out and it's a nice day, I will throw Travis on the front of the jogger and run on a flat surface. This has only happened a couple times because it is very hard pushing 3 kids.
When the weather is frightful I will opt to go on my treadmill down in the basement. I hate it, but it is the best case scenario some days. I have mine set up right outside of the kids play area so I can keep a good eye on them. I can catch up on some tv shows that way too. By the way, watching Cougar Town while running isn't a good thing, especially when you have a prolapsed bladder. I was laughing too much!
Recently I've been enjoying some Mom-swapping. This is something that is out there that I think few mom's take advantage of. We all have other mom friends, so why not enlist them to help. My friend Shelby lives just up the road (country road that is, about 6 miles) and she has a little girl just a few months older than Eileen. It's a little unfair since I have 2 (we swap while Travis is at school) and she has one, but all three kids are good kids, so it works out well. When she comes over I go out for a run while she watches the kids, and then she goes out while I watch the kids. It's a bonus that the girls get to have a play date. We did this today and it was 20 degrees with wind whipping and snow flying, but we both went outside anyway!
To get in my track workouts I bring the kids and give them food and something to do while I trot around the track. Sometimes I have to yell and break up fights in the middle of an interval, but hey, if Britney Spears can sing while running than I can yell at my kids while running, right?
The only time that being a runner mom is hard is race time. The shuffling around and trying to find a sitter or making sure the husband is available can be as daunting as the actual race. Usually it all works out. We will see what the spring brings when I want to run more races.
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