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Building Resilience as a Parent: Managing Stress and Finding Balance
Parenting is a rewarding yet demanding journey. Between school responsibilities, after-school activities, doctor’s appointments and household tasks, many parents feel overwhelmed. While stress is an inevitable part of raising children, learning how to manage it effectively can make a significant difference in your well-being.
Strategies to Build Resilience as a new parent
Resilience is key to handling parental stress in a healthy way. Here are some effective strategies to help you navigate the daily challenges of parenting while maintaining your mental and emotional health.
1. Shift Your Perspective
Sometimes, stress stems from how we perceive challenges rather than the actual difficulties themselves. Reframing your thoughts can ease feelings of anxiety and helplessness.
- Break Problems into Smaller Tasks: Instead of feeling overwhelmed by a long to-do list, tackle one issue at a time. Compartmentalising your stress can help you feel more in control.
- Evaluate The Real Impact: Ask yourself if the problem at hand is as serious as it feels. Will this issue matter next week or next year? Keeping perspective help reduce unnecessary worry.
- Seek Support: Asking for help is not a weakness but a strength. Whether from family, friends, or mental health professionals, support systems play a crucial role in managing stress effectively.
2. Create a Safe Space to Express your feelings:
Emotional release is essential for stress management. Writing, in particular, has been shown to improve mental well-being.
- Journaling as a Coping Tool: Writing down your thoughts and feelings helps process emotions and gain clarity.
- Reflect on Your Growth: Looking back on past journal entries allows you to recognize patterns and appreciate how far you have come.
- No Pressure to Write Daily: Use Journaling as a tool rather than an obligation. Write when you need to express yourself, not because you feel required to do so.
3. Give back to Others:
Helping others is a powerful way to boost your well-being and resilience. This approach is often more manageable for parents with older children, as those with younger children may face challenges in balancing multiple responsibilities.
- Volunteering enhances Perspective: Engaging in community service shifts focus from personal struggles to the impact you can have on others.
- Family Bonding through giving: Volunteering together strengthens relationships and instills positive values in children.
- A reminder that you know: Knowing that your contributions are meaningful increases self worth and overall happiness.
4. Practice what you Preach:
As a parent, you model behaviour for your children. The way you handle stress teaches them resilience.
- Use the Power of ‘Yet’: Instead of saying, “I cant do this”, try “I cant do this yet”. This simple shift foster a growth mindset for both you and your children.
- Prioritize Self-Care: Show your kids that taking care of oneself is essential, not selfish.
- Normalise Seeking Help: Teach your children that asking for support is a sign of strength, not failure.
Taking the Next Step towards Self-care:
Parenting can be overwhelming, but you don’t have to navigate it alone. At ImPerfect, the best Psychotherapy clinic in Mumbai, we offer compassionate and evidence-based therapy to help parents manage stress, build resilience and find balance which includes therapy for postpartum depression too. Our therapist provides individualised support, whether through cognitive-behavioural techniques, mindfulness practices or personalised counselling.
By Urveez Kakalia and Krupa Abraham
Reference:
2. https://youthfirstinc.org/feeling-overwhelmed-as-a-parent-knowing-how-to-cope/
Further Reading:
Page, B. F., Hinton, L., Harrop, E., & Vincent, C. (2020). The challenges of caring for children who require complex medical care at home:‘The go between for everyone is the parent and as the parent that’s an awful lot of responsibility’. Health Expectations, 23(5), 1144-1154.
Woodgate, R. L., Edwards, M., Ripat, J. D., Borton, B., & Rempel, G. (2015). Intense parenting: a qualitative study detailing the experiences of parenting children with complex care needs. BMC pediatrics, 15, 1-15.
Ekbäck, E., Strömbäck, M., Rådmark, L., Öjebrandt, J., Molin, J., & Henje Blom, E. (2024). Dealing with overwhelming life situations: young people’s experiences of becoming depressed. Scandinavian Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology, 12(1), 63-71.