Today, I took my youngest to Mom and Baby yoga. I second-guessed whether I should go or not, when it was getting close to the time to leave and I felt I wasn’t really “ready” to head out the door. I worried it wouldn’t be “worth” going because I knew he would just have to eat soon after we arrived, and maybe that would take up most of the class.

But we went anyway.

And it was fantastic! What I was reminded of today, is that I think it’s really important to let your kids see you doing you.

And sometimes that’s really hard, because it simply doesn’t feel like there’s time to do you at all. You get so focused on the other people in your family, making sure that they get what they need to be nourished as full, whole people, that it’s easy to push yourself to the back burner. Really easy. Sometimes it seems truly unavoidable.

And it’s not like Mom and Baby yoga is a fantastic yoga class in and of itself or that it’s at a level that gives me a great practice. There are babies making noise, whimpering, playing with things, banding toys, straight-up crying, or feeding. You’re distracted. That’s the nature of it. But I thought, as I got in a few very simple stretches and warrior poses with my son looking up at me, that as diluted as the practice might be, he’s seeing me do me. He’s seeing me not just as his mom, not only as an extension of him and his needs, but as me. As my own person, with interests and passions and activities of my own. And I know that right now, my son is not actually old enough to conceptualize me as a separate person – he’s not even 3 months old! But if I keep showing him this, then as he grows to know me, he will always know me as a whole person, not only his mother. And that’s how I want him to see me.