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If you are that calm, centered, Zen-like parent the rest of us strive to be, you probably don't need to read this article. Please feel free to go back to whatever you were doing.

... Still here? Thought so.

Welcome to the 99.999% of parents who aren't so very Zen-like most of the time. And who can blame us? While this raising kids thing can be seriously great, it can also be seriously challenging.

Parenting: It's life with a cherry on top. Except, instead of an actual cherry, it's a pile of half-broken toys on the floor with a side of projectile vomit.

And that can make us a little... edgy.

Okay, maybe a lot edgy. Frustration starts to build, slowly ascending to the surface like a dormant volcano.

Before long it erupts, and we're not behaving in ways we're terribly proud of. We snap at the people we love, we yell when we probably shouldn't - and then we feel like the worst. parent. ever.

This is what overwhelmed looks like; it's to be expected sometimes in a life chock full of responsibilities, but there's no doubt it's ugly.

And what should we do when life hands us some ugly? Take some downtime, of course.

We should get lost in a good book, or go for a run. We should get together with a friend or escape to a coffee shop, where someone else does the food prep.

But for some reason, many moms (and dads, too) feel we just can't do that. Not without a heaping side of guilt, anyway. That somehow, in our desire to escape the chaos, we're letting down the people we love.

They need us, you know.

True. But here's the thing: they need the whole us. The entirety of us. Not just the tired, cranky version of us trying to keep a lid on things.

Sometimes we might think we're failing at this parenting gig if we need to take breaks. But everyone needs breaks, whether they want to admit it or not. We are not failing for needing some space. We are honoring the reality that we cannot simply move from task to task, from responsibility to responsibility, without a little carefree time thrown into the mix.

As special and important as parenting is, it's only one of the many things that define us. There is more to our lives than diapers and dicing carrots, more than mortgage payments and montages of a child's first birthday.

What about health and humor? What about conversations and creativity? Woven together, all these aspects make us the well-rounded people our children can learn from and look up to. What are we teaching our kids if we neglect big pieces of ourselves that bring us joy?

There is no question we need to sacrifice a great deal of personal time when we take on the care and feeding of little ones. In fact, there are plenty of days when any kind of escapism seems impossible; there is simply too much to do and too many people to do it for. We go into robot mode, just trying to get from sunup to sundown without completely losing our minds.

But even robots need maintenance or they eventually break down.

What if we can't go for a run or escape to the coffee shop today? Try some of these 10-minute self-care rituals instead. Even a short chunk of time can do wonders for the mind, body and soul.

Taking time for you can be the difference between rushing over in a huff to scrub the marker off the wall and standing back to admire your child's contraband artwork first with a grin on your face.

Refreshed people see the world differently. We tend to be more positive and centered. We are kinder and gentler. We are better parents, partners, employees and friends. Putting ourselves first makes us whole again - and we like it. Everyone benefits when we're at our best.

You never know; with a little bit of self-care, you might even be the calm, centered, Zen-like parent who doesn't need to read this article.

Well, until the next bout of projectile vomiting, anyway.

Image credit: Jorge Royan, shared under the Creative Commons License.