A mum skipped her daughter's award ceremony to 'go to the gym' in the name of self care.

Being a mum is a tough gig. But what job is even more difficult? Being a mum during the Christmas period.

If you’re not queueing in lines at shopping centres for presents, you’re waiting in another line at the supermarket preparing for that Christmas lunch you’ve been dreading since last Boxing Day.

And in between all that Christmas prep, you’re still carpooling your kids everywhere and attending every one of their events that have spilled into your calendar.

Every year, you tell yourself you’ll do less.

Do you though? Absolutely not.

To sum it up, there’s often not one minute of downtime to relieve the stress as Christmas expectations grow.

But US mum-of-two Kristen Hewitt reminded us that mums aren’t superhuman, especially around the holiday season.

“So I did something that some may think is selfish recently, but I really needed it,” the two-time Emmy award-winning TV reporter posted on Facebook.

In the post, Hewitt explained that she missed her daughter’s honour roll assembly to go for a run, and for a reason mums around the world often forget.

“I started to feel the guilt creep in as I made this tough decision, but then I remembered ME, and how hard Thanksgiving and the week that followed was with my husband travelling,” she wrote.

After dealing with tantrums, anxiety, work, the household, pets (you know the list, it seemingly never ends), the mum made the choice to find an opportunity for herself and take it.

LISTEN: We discuss whether or not parents should stay for the entire concert or school event, on our podcast for imperfect parents. Post continues after audio. 

“I talked to her about how proud I was of her, but let her know I have to work a game tonight and needed to take care of myself this morning,” she said. “She also had her father and grandmother attending in my place.”

Her daughter's reaction? One of understanding. Her daughter gave her a hug, was grateful for everything her mum had ever done for her, and "learned by example today that SELF-CARE matters".

"Sometimes as parents we have to make hard decisions and show up for ourselves instead of showing up for our kids. And you know what? It’s not selfish - it’s called self-love," she concluded.

Children understand a lot more than we think. They know how much mums do for them, because they know they matter, but that mums matter too.

So next time, take that moment and reclaim your mum sanity. You definitely deserve it.