When I think back to life before becoming a parent, I have faint memories of sitting on the couch sipping a glass of wine with my husband on a Friday night and feeling truly relaxed and mentally “empty.”

I’ve had many, many wonderful evenings since my son was born over five years ago, but it’s so much harder to unwind these days. In fact, I sometimes wonder whether I will ever be able to regain that pre-parenthood ability to just shut-down at the end of a day.

Maybe that’s because the day never really ends. It just progresses into a night-shift that then morphs into another day eight hours later.

But as parents, we need to learn how to relax again. And not just on summer vacation at the beach. We have to find a way to push mental pause — regularly.

This is a personal struggle for me. My mental tape-recorder seems to be stuck on play.

But I’ve decided to cut myself some slack. I’m not going to become “Miss Relaxed” overnight. Baby steps are better than no steps at all, I figure.

For now, I’m just trying to carve out the last 15 or 20 minutes of the day for mental relaxation. If I’m lucky, I might even get an hour in the bath. But 15 minutes will do.

Every night before turning off the light – no matter how late it might be – I’ve been making a point of reading something humorous or inspirational.

I keep a couple of uplifting books on my night stand (Erma Bombeck is great … or even a Deepak Chopra-type read), and I open one up to a random page and soak in a paragraph or two. If something makes me laugh or smile, then jackpot! I’ve hit gold.

Then I can close the book and enjoy the sweet sensation of a “lightened” head hitting the pillow.

It’s a start.