The Importance of Jammie Night

I saw this phrase somewhere “stop the glorification of busy” and it just resonated with me.  As Americans we seem to have an almost ingrained Type A personality; obviously not everyone fits into this category and people find ways around it but it seems like everyone you meet is “tired” or “busy” or “has way too much to do”.  We need to stop filling all of our time with commitments to everyone and everything.  What about the commitment we should have with ourselves?

I know “self-care” has become a huge buzz word and almost seems trendy but also seems to me like it’s a concept riddled with privilege.  I distinctly remember reading something about self-care and instantly had a bad taste in my mouth because it sounded like something only rich people who didn’t have to worry about anything could do (or should do).  Let’s face it, “self-care” is the privileged way of saying lazy.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of lazy which brings me to my topic: jammie night.

Years ago, before I even was a mom, I recognized the need to stay home once and a while.  I’m an extrovert by nature so I love to be around people but after a while the battery drains no matter who you are.  I also have had the constant voice of Babci saying “you’ll get sick if you keep running!” Which is one of those pearls of wisdom you hear from your mother and you just ignore until you’re probably close to 23 or 24 and realize “my parents aren’t as dumb as I thought they were!” I finally realized what she was saying was true.  When I’m out every night of the week doing something, which could be as simple as running errands or going to dinner, I am spending energy.

There reaches a point where the tank empties; I either crash or I keep going and get sick.  Your immune system gets depleted when it isn’t allowed to rest and recoup.  It is constantly being bombarded by everything out there in the real world and at some point the beautiful machine that is our body gives up and needs to retreat into its shell.  Everyone’s energy tank is a little different and everyone spends there energy a little differently but I found that coming home putting on my pjs as soon as I get home and just hang around the house is the best way for me to refill my tank on a regular basis.  It requires no money, no planning, no effort other than to walk in the door.

When it’s jammie night (sometimes on really busy weeks I even add it in my planner) I don’t worry about any errands that may or may not get done.  I do some of the stuff around the house (the easy stuff) that needs to get done and then I just hang out.  Now that the Munchkin is around it tends to make jammie night a more regular occurrence because we don’t go out very often after work; the risk-reward ratio of packing a toddler into a car and running errands around dinner time seems like a terrible payoff.

With the importance of toddler bedtime routines I have yet to completely introduce the Munchkin to jammie night, but jammie night is more then just the clothes you’re wearing.  It’s the attitude that comes with it: the attitude of lazy.  I’m going to just be a bum and watch TV.  There is nothing wrong with some lazy in our life.  Our time is precious but it doesn’t always need to be productive or spent in some seemingly important ways. Making sure you’re a functioning human being is pretty important and if taking some time to veg and binge watch something (currently in my life it’s Bubble Guppies on some nights – I don’t even recognize myself sometimes!) makes that happen then I call that a pretty important use of my time!

I hope you find your time to be lazy!