I love hobbies! As a current member of the exhausting motherhood club, I have a need for hobbies and “me time” more than ever in my life.
I also lowered my standards a bit to make it all work. In this post, I will share how I make the most of my hobby at this current stage in my life.
I’ve always been a hobbyist! Since I was a child, I have collected interests and obsessions.
In middle school, we learned to sew pillows for our first sewing project, and I made dozens of small pillows (all in sunflower print) to give to the extended family. mine for Christmas.
A year, I make dozens of aviaries. I spent the weekend baking cookies and muffins.
My astrologer recently asked me, “Do you feel old when you’re so young?” and I said, “Yes! Oh my gosh- YES! “. I’m the best grandma’s seventh grader of all time.
Over the years, I’ve tried almost every hobby you can imagine. Many of them have appeared here on the blog. I am obsessed with jewelry making, scrapbook making and I tend to paint about every 5 years.
I’ve had fashion stages, electronics courses, baking, cocktail making, thrift and decor, art journaling and needlework.
I grew up as one of those kids who could never run a mile in gym class, but as an adult, I taught myself how to run and fell in love with it. I’ve had epic failures and surprising successes. The joy of hobbies is one of life’s greatest joys!
Currently, I am learning to make pasta, write a book and take a painting class in my spare time. I’m a mom with two businesses and two kids at home in the summer, so I don’t really have “free time” but I try to do it because it’s essential to me.
Here are my three tips for getting the most out of adult hobbies.
1. Lower your standards.
One of the most common questions I get is how do I make time for *insert anything here* as a mother of two young children. First, let me say that if it looks too good to be true on the internet, it probably is.
The truth is I’m very tired. Many days I don’t catch my to-do list, and I often cry because I’m overwhelmed.
In my perfect world, I would spend a full day (or even half a day) working on my creative projects. As a working mom, I have lowered my standards WAY below that.
At this stage in my life, I’m always creative whenever I can. Here it’s half an hour, there it’s an hour, here it’s half an hour. I try to maintain the attitude that anything creative is better than nothing.
Small sessions of 30 minutes add up and are sustaining me for now. I know that one day I will have more free time, and in that time I will do things that I cannot do now.
If you’re in a busy season of life, don’t pressure yourself to do more than you can. Just enjoy a little hobby time that you can! It’s a lot better to have small-scale hobbies than to spend years without any hobbies.
2. Remove guilt from hobbies.
Maybe you start a new hobby and then don’t do it for six months. Maybe you buy supplies and don’t use them all. There are lots of reasons why you might associate guilt with your preferences, but I find it very helpful to get rid of guilt together.
Hobbies are often not the end goal but often a creative experience. It helps me think of my hobby as an ongoing lifelong project.
If I don’t reach the goals I set, I make new ones and move on. My biggest goal is to live a creative life – not baking cookies for every party or making a craft from scratch with my kids every day. You can be sporadic and imperfect with your preferences.
3. Keep learning, keep doing.
As we age, it is likely that we will have more time for hobbies and more time alone. In my current phase of grueling motherhood, it’s easy to feel that the time will never come (what is alone time?).
One of the reasons I kept my hobbies alive during these truly overwhelming years was that I wanted them to still be there later in life.
We’ve all heard stories of people who retire and immediately have a reduced quality of life because they realize that having a job gives them a sense of purpose. As I get older, I hope to continue adding more hobbies and interests to my life.
I don’t want to get out of the habit of learning, doing, and trying new things. Keeping it a priority in my life is now an investment in that future.
If you feel like you can’t make time for something just for you, I encourage you to take small steps. Pack your gear, arrange whatever space you can, and find places where you can sneak away during that thirty-minute lull.
You don’t have to accomplish anything big. Instead, just focus on giving yourself some creative time as it becomes a part of your life again.
If you have tips for cultivating new hobbies as an adult, we’d love to hear them in the comments! xx- Elsie
