Summer is officially here, the kids are out of school and Mom is still meeting work commitments while trying to juggle some real quality time in with the kids to make the summer count.  Summer should be fun for the kids, but juggling so much fun into the schedule, making up for the extra groceries needed with the kids home all day not to mention extra phone calls at work during the day from kids who say "Mom, I'm bored" calls for a plan of action to make sure Mom doesn't get burned out and stays on track this summer to have a little fun herself.  Selfish?  I call it the Flexible Mommy Account and much like it's misnomer, a Flexible Spending Account for health savings, it is just as important for our overall mental health and well being. 

Make time for your own hairstyling appointment after work.  During the school year, I often opt for the hair dye, Box #73 from Walmart to save time.  My daughters really enjoy coloring my hair, but somehow, it's just not the same as the couple of hours I spend with the hairstylist.  Just a couple of hours for highlights or all over color can make a difference in our sense of feeling good.  After all, "our hair is what people tend to notice first", so make some time for yourself and get your hair done even if it's just a shampoo and style.

Cut down on your house cleaning (GASP!).  Trust me, give each child a list of five things they can do each morning around the house to cut down on any time you would spend on cleaning or laundry in the evenings.  Kids need life skills and this is a great way to add a little adult responsibility to their day.  Even the youngest child can pick toys up from the living room.  Older teenagers are completely capable of rolling down the recycle or cutting the lawn or weeding the flower bed.  When Mom gets home, she can cash in her Flexible Mommy Account doing what counts..spending time with the kids.

Schedule appointments, overtime, meetings and workouts in the early hours of the morning.  There are times when I roll out of bed at 3:00 a.m. to get caught up on work.  Sounds crazy, I know, but this allows me to often leave at 3:00 p.m. and not open my laptop in the evening.  I have often found, too, that there are other humans up at 6:00 a.m. and would gladly schedule time to have a breakfast meeting or workout before the day starts instead of after the workday to be able to flex into their children's lives in the evening.

Give yourself permission to take the weekend off and go to the beach.  Strangely, we are more productive come Monday morning when we have had time on the weekends to download work stress, ease up on family stress, worrying about finances, etc., and just pack up and head to the beach.  I have found that being at least 45 minutes away from my house somehow gives me the sense that I'm too far away from home to worry about shoving in the next load of laundry or worrying about flipping open my laptop to check email.  Once we are at the beach, the necessary times include a great book, pails and shovels and plenty of quality time with the kids.

What's loaded on your Flexible Mommy Account this summer?  It's not too late to open your account and start banking some extra time for you which translates into quality time with your kids and equals a lot of summer memories neither you nor your children will forget.  Last summer, right before school started, my daughters said.."Mom, I just want summer to never end, we had so much fun, it was the best summer ever!"  I guess that's what matters!