Parenting under normal circumstances is difficult — it’s one of the hardest things you can do in life. And parenting during a family or health crisis, the loss of a loved one, a scary situation at school or at work, or a natural disaster can feel like an all-out battle.
While dealing with high-stress situations as a parent can feel overwhelming, you’re not alone. Read on to learn our best tips for coping with stressful situations as a parent or caregiver.
Make Time to Check in with Yourself
In stressful times, it’s easy to become triggered and enter into “survival” mode. This can look like an increase in our desire for control, anxiety, or irritability. We might also shut down, disengage, or feel depressed.
When you’re dealing with high-stress situations as a parent, it’s important to prioritize self-care more than ever. We can’t wait to find the time — we need to make the time. Even if it’s just five minutes to check in with yourself, it’s important to take a deep breath, say a prayer, and ask yourself what you need in that moment. You cannot pour from an empty cup.
When you are feeling like you’re running on empty, ask yourself — what can fill me up right now? This may feel selfish, but it’s not. You cannot give your family what you want to give them when it feels like you have nothing left.
Find Ways to Fill Up
Take time to determine what truly fills you up — not just what merely distracts you from life’s biggest problems. Distraction, like binge-watching your favorite television show, provides only a temporary fix. Instead, think about what fills you up emotionally, spiritually, and physically.
This might look like taking a break to stretch and breathe deeply. Perhaps you can take a walk around your house. Or maybe you can journal, pray and read Scripture to bring hope in this stressful season. Maybe music brings you peace. Maybe you’re in need of connection and can call a friend or family member to ask for help.
In fact, one of the greatest forms of self-care is simply to suspend judgment and acknowledge the truth about how you feel. Sometimes we’re afraid to acknowledge feelings because it seems like we’ll lose power over them, but you’re actually taking back your power by speaking truth out and shedding light on what you’re experiencing.
Prioritize Self-Care
By taking care of yourself and allowing yourself to have emotional, physical, and spiritual needs, then you’ll be more equipped for dealing with high-stress situations as a parent. By pouring back into yourself, you can then sit with your children’s emotions when they arise from the stress. As a result, you can respond instead of reacting when your children have difficult behaviors.
We are their regulators — they look to us, the adults, to know how they should be responding to the stress. If our response is one of survival, they, too, will enter into survival mode, which often leads to more stress and chaos.
Instead, change the narrative. Prioritize your own self-care, and from there, you can know how to best parent your children in the midst of life’s most stressful circumstances.
KEY TAKEAWAY
Parenting on a daily basis can be difficult, but it can feel especially overwhelming in stressful situations. In these moments, it is important to remember that our bodies are God’s temple and we need to practice self-care before we can properly support our children.
“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?” ~1 Corinthians 3:16 (NIV)
APPLICATION
If your children struggle with getting along, playing a game of Oh, Shoe! can help relieve some of the conflict and tension they might be feeling. Encourage your children to step into each other’s shoes — literally — to learn how to see the situation from their sibling’s perspective.
Find it now in the Everyday MomentsTM activities collection!
