Being a working parent may make you feel like you are drowning from all the tasks and responsibilities, and having such a jam-packed schedule both at work and at home can be overwhelming. If you do not take a step back and learn how to relax and calm down, you will be pushed over the edge by your child's screaming, your toddler's tantrum or your teen's rebellion, and the outcome might not be so nice for both of you.
Before you pull your hair from frustration, it is important that you learn to manage your stress so that you can have the energy, patience and time to organize your daily life.
Tips for working parents
It is not easy to separate work from home, and it can be difficult to not bring the stress that you've felt the whole day at work because it is not like you have a switch button to turn your emotions off. But experts say that it is important to do so. Before coming home to your family, you can go on a drive in order to relax and calm down a bit before stepping inside your house.
You can also open up to your spouse or your friends about your work dilemmas, having an outlet can be healthy for you as it can help prevent you from going off on your children.
Your children can also be your stress relievers, you can spend time with them and be basked in their world so you can at least temporarily forget your own. If your children love sports, you can play with them. If they love to read, you can listen to them read their favorite books or you can read them some of their favorite books. Seeing your children smile and laugh can be a good end to your day.
Relax and recharge
No matter how busy you get, it is important to remember that you need to take time for yourself. Even for just an hour every day, you can do things that make you feel good and things that you enjoy. You can go to a yoga class, drink coffee alone in your favorite coffee shop, walk around the mall, watch TV, meditate or read a book. You can pick an activity that you can do alone to help you recharge.
Create a well-balanced life, avoid over-scheduling and focusing too much on one thing to the point that it affects the other aspects of your life. It is also important to remember that you are not alone, there are a lot of working parents around you that are feeling stressed out. You can form a bond with them, or you can even create your own support group so you can discuss about the difficulties of juggling work and home responsibilities.
Stress is inevitable for working parents, but that does not mean you can't fight it. Having a short fuse and being constantly anxious and irritable is not only unhealthy for your emotional and mental state, but it can also affect the people around you, like your children. When you feel like you are at your wit's end, take a step back, relax and breathe.
ALSO READ: Work-Life Balance For Parents: Avoiding Burnout And Stress While Juggling Responsibilities
