5 Effective Ways To Reduce Parental Burnout
When was the last time you took a timeout as a busy parent? With hectic lifestyles, more and more parents are at risk of burnout, juggling family life, work responsibilities, and more each and every day. According to an IPPB Consortium Study, up to 5 million parents experience burnout each year. Another study has found that the pressure to be a perfect parent, thanks to social media, is increasing strain on already stretched parents as they navigate life, raising kids, and employment.
If you’re nodding along and the above paragraph seems a little too slow to hit home, there are some things you can do to ease burnout and give yourself a break from the demands of modern-day parenting.
Digital Detox
If you really want to reclaim some time as your own, getting off social media and giving yourself a digital detox is the way forward. If you check your cell phone and other devices to see how much time you spend online and when you can look at reducing this time or cutting it out completely for a set amount of time. Social media can contribute to overwhelming and burnout and generally make you feel like you don’t have enough time in your life if you are online a lot.
Start by taking a few hours away from your phone. Set a timer, put your phone down, and don’t pick it up unless it’s an emergency. You’ll be surprised at how much better you feel. This is just the beginning. You can gradually increase the time you spend away from social media, work up to weekends, or simply reduce your overall screen time. A digital detox can be a liberating experience, giving you the control and freedom you need to relax and unwind. The potential benefits include improved sleep, reduced stress, and increased productivity.
Play Games
Games can be your escape hatch, offering a brief respite from the demands of daily life. They provide a fun and engaging way to shift your focus and recharge your energy. More than just a distraction, games can bring joy and relaxation into your life, helping you forget about the stress and pressure of parenting for a while.
You can indulge in your favorite video games; gaming is a great way to help you forget about your day-to-day life for a short while and have some fun. You can also play board games as a family, such as Monopoly, Scrabble, or Pictionary, or do a jigsaw puzzle. These activities not only provide a break from the daily grind but also foster family bonding. If you prefer solo activities, you might find online games like solitaire, sudoku, or even Wordle are more up your street.
The beauty of games of any kind is that they force you to put your concentration into what you’re doing, and everything else takes a backseat for the duration of the gameplay, meaning you get to relax and unwind (unless you’re super competitive playing multiplayer games) and even give your brain a workout too.
Meditation, Mindfulness and Gratitude
All three of these can go hand in hand and overtime and can be extremely beneficial tools for regrouping, unwinding and reducing burnout. Meditation and mindfulness are about putting yourself in the present moment. Mindfulness, in particular, is the practice of being fully present and engaged in the moment, aware of your thoughts and feelings without reacting to them. It’s a powerful tool for managing stress and improving your mental well-being. Clear your mind and focus on what is happening in that very second.
It can take some time to perfect, but it’s well worth sticking with. Find some time in your day when it’s quiet, and you can focus on the task at hand without interruption. Then, focus on your breathing, get yourself into the right mindset, and clear your head of everything except that very moment. It won’t be easy, but once you get it, you will find that there are so many benefits. For instance, you can practice mindfulness while doing household chores or during a short break at work.
Gratitude is something you can do every single day. It’s about being grateful for what you have, rather than what you don’t have or what is going wrong and is a great way to remind yourself of the good things when everything is getting too much. It might be that you liked how your hair looked that day, or you saw something that made you smile or that the kids ate all of their dinner without complaining. It’s the small things that ground you, and gratitude is an excellent tool to do that and help you bring things back under control when you don’t feel like you have control.
Have An Early Night
A simple but effective tool when you’re heading towards burnout. The dishes can wait until the next day, the laundry will still be there tomorrow, and life will still continue if you take an extra hour or two in bed occasionally. Sleep is a magic elixir and is a great way to support your physical and mental health. Even more so when things are overwhelming. So, if things are building up and you’re feeling more frazzled than usual, go to bed. Try to avoid taking screens with you, read a book if you want, and use this time to relax and get some much-needed sleep. Your body and your mind will thank you for it, and you’ll wake up feeling refreshed and ready to face the day.
So, if things are building up and you’re feeling more frazzled than usual, go to bed. Try to avoid taking screens with you, read a book if you want, and use this time to relax and get some much-needed sleep. Your body and your mind will thank you for it.
Talk To Someone
Burontout can be compounded if you don’t share your worries with others. Vent to someone you trust, offload to people who can help you out if needed, or simply meet up with your nearest and dearest for some good old talking therapy to help you connect and take your mind off things. Even if you don’t talk about what is concerning you, simply meeting up with others and conversing and enjoying yourself could be exactly what you need.
In some cases, it might be a good idea to talk to the doctor or therapist, but talking to anyone can be an excellent first step to helping you work through your issues or just to get out of your head and have some fun.
