OK all you hard-working foster and adoptive parents out there... always making time for everyone else. Always giving up your private time for some dire emergency that anyone else could handle. It is time you count the kids and get a baby sitter.

You are an important part of the family. If you are stressed out and you never have time for yourself, then you are at risk for burnout.

Why put yourself or your children through that. You owe it to the kids and to yourself to set aside a little time just for yourself each and every week. For married couples, it is essential that you make time for one another. Parenting is stressful as it is. However, it can really take toll on a marriage if the partners do not keep a close eye on their relationship.

I can speak from experience in this area. My husband and I have been married for 22 years. There have been a couple times that issues with the children have gotten between us. If you don't take time to address the issues as they arise you will wake up one day lost and not knowing each other.

That happened in our marriage. We became more like brother and sister than married people. We had to make a point of setting aside 15 minutes each night to talk about the kids' issues and then one hour of time to not talk about the kids at all and concentrate on us.

Our daughter's therapist asked us how much alone time we spent with each other. We looked at each other and we both had no idea when we had spent alone time with one another.

She set us on a regimen of movies and dinner once a week. We had to promise her this. At first it was real work. Our daughter is controlling and had to call or know what we were doing and when we were doing it. But once we did it, it made a world of difference.

We spent a summer apart so we would have time to think about our marriage. I had the girls on vacation with me while he stayed at home and worked. Then on his vacation time he took the girls and let me have alone time.

After being apart, we wanted to see one another again. We realized what an important part in one another's lives we actually were. Even more to each other.

So as a good parent, be good to yourself and your marriage. Make time for "me time," "our time," and set up that "date night." Call a sitter. It will do everyone a world of good.