Becoming a new parent isn’t something you can explain to someone who isn’t a parent. Even in university, when pulling all nighters trying to finish projects and papers, the level of extreme exhaustion just doesn’t compare to the constant exhaustion faced when constantly having to look after a tiny, dependant life form, who wants to wake up at all hours of the night.
Staying creative is difficult, but possible- I wrote my first book while on maternity leave for a year with Chloe. The trick is in managing your time and realizing that even doing something half-assed is still better than not doing it at all. Drawing SOMETHING is still better than never picking up your sketchbook and pencil. Doing a ten minute doodle while watching Netflix when you don’t have the energy to do anything else is still better than drawing nothing at all. If you produce one decent drawing in a whole year, that is STILL better than having produced nothing at all.
Trust me- I can relate. I went pretty much nine solid years without producing a single piece of art. It is something that is easy to just always put off when you have so many other things in your life to focus on. But I do regret not at least keeping up with it a little bit- at least sketching and working on improving my technique more, even if I wasn’t creating any fully finished art.
So don’t make the same mistake I did (although in my defense, I DO have too many hobbies, and my fish tanks, gardens, and hobby photography ended up eating up my time.) Take SOME time to yourself to focus on your art, if that is what you want to do. And to heck with the messy kitchen (and I am one who HATES a messy house) because I will tell you, eventually you will get your clean house back, and the messy house when your kids were babies won’t matter.
