Am I a Selfish Parent???

This is something that I have been wondering about for a while. I now spend a lot of time at the gym or doing some form of exercise. 

Most of the time (90%) I workout when the kids are at school or in bed so it doesn't affect them, but over the Easter holidays I've had to go and put them in the kids club at the gym. One evening a week I go to my body pump class and miss putting my daughter to bed in order to go. It is only one evening but it has left me wondering if making losing weight such a priority is in fact making me a selfish parent??

My daughter started school in September and my husband and myself decided that this would be the year I got to spend on myself and finally lose the weight. So I planned on treating going to the gym like having a job, I'd put in as many hours as I could and see what happened!
Well as any other working mum will tell you working and having kids is hard and you are often left feeling guilty for something. This seems to be the case with going to the gym too. Over the past few months I've been on the recieving end of a few comments from the other people I know asking when I'm going to go back to work - I explain about the choice my husband and I have made and I get looked at like I've gone mad! 

"Well I could never spend that much time on myself"

"I'm too busy looking after the house/kids/husband"

These are the comments I tend to get. This only seems to be adding to my feelings of guilt. 

Personally I feel like I'm a better parent since I started losing weight. My kids don't care what I look like they love me regardless but I'm now able to do things I couldn't before. 

I know it sounds cliche but playing on the park, pushing them in the swings - these are things that matter to the kids and the things they remember, not that once a week mummy wasn't there at bedtime! I'm looking after myself and ensuring that I'll be around for my kids and grandkids when we are all old. Surely that suggests I'm doing this for us all not just myself????