Balancing Self-Care & Parenting
Balancing Self-Care and Parenting:
Parenting is a beautiful, chaotic, and evolving journey. Becoming a parent is one of the most rewarding, yet challenging, roles you can experience. Throughout the parenting journey, we focus on caring for our children, physically, emotionally and socially, but often forget to take care of ourselves. When we do not prioritize ourselves, we are faced with more irritability, become argumentative and essentially feel burnt out. Focusing on self-care is the key to not allowing yourself to get to the stage of burn out. By prioritizing yourself, you are focusing on your best self, and in turn focusing on becoming a better parent. You need to be able to fill our own cups first, before pouring for others.
How can we strike a balance between the constant demands of parenting and taking care of ourselves? Here are five tips:
1. Reframe Your Thinking: Self-Care Is Not Selfish
Reframing your thinking and shifting your mindset towards balancing self-care and parenting is the first step in the process. At first, it may feel selfish to focus on self-care and seem like you are putting other responsibilities aside. But ultimately, self-care can reduce stress hormones, relax your body, and calm your mind, preventing the cycle of stress related burn out.
2. Find the Smaller Moments
Self-care does not always have to be an elaborate getaway, or long, relaxing bath. Sometimes, we need to implement self-care in smaller moments throughout the day.
Taking five minutes to meditate before you start your day.
Doing a few stretches when you wake up or before bed.
Enjoying a cup of coffee or tea alone (even if it's just for 5 minutes).
Getting outside for a quick walk around the block.
Listen to your favorite song
Engage in a calming activity with your child (coloring or reading a book)
These small actions can provide a quick mental reset and make a big difference in how you handle the day’s challenges.
3. Set Realistic Expectations
One of the biggest challenges associated with parenting is feeling like we need to do everything perfectly. It is simply not possible to manage everything that comes with parenting at this level of perfection. Between managing the household, carpooling, extracurricular activities and being present, it can feel very overwhelming. We need to be able to allow ourselves to be “imperfect” and set realistic expectations. Instead of striving for perfection, focus on progress and consistency.
4. Schedule Self-Care Like Any Other Appointment
Part of the problem while parenting is finding time for yourself. If you don’t actively prioritize yourself, your self-care will fall through the cracks. Self-care should be seen as something non-negotiable and part of your routine. To make this happen, you can schedule time for yourself, just like you would with any important appointment. The consistency of scheduling will make it easier to maintain long-term.
5. Practice Self-Compassion
Give yourself grace and be patient with yourself. When you make mistakes or feel like you’re falling short, practice self-compassion. Recognize your efforts and remind yourself that you're doing the best you can. Parenting is hard, and some days you may feel like you’re not doing enough. Forgive yourself for the moments that did not go according to plan and remember that tomorrow is a new day.