Put on Your Own Oxygen Mask First

Put on your own oxygen mask first. This is important for your own self-care as a mom.

When you hear that, what feelings come up for you?  Does it make you roll your eyes like, “Who has time for that?” Or are you thinking, “What does that even mean?”

For our purposes here at Parenting with ABA, it means that you can’t pour from an empty cup. Oh no! Another colloquialism! It means you can’t burn the candle at both ends. Not another one! What do all these expressions even mean?

If you don’t take care of yourself, you are going to burn out.

Parental burnout is a very real thing. It includes exhaustion but also goes beyond that. Parental burnout is characterized by feeling emotionally distant, feeling like you are not a good parent, and being unable to enjoy your children.

Is this statement true for you: If I keep going the way I am now, I am going to burn out.

So what can we even do about it? Parenting is hard. Duh. People will get burn out because parenting is hard. That doesn’t have to be true. We can find ways to make things run smoother in our homes while also taking care of ourselves.

If this statement is true for you If I keep going the way I am now, I am going to burn out, then let’s change the way you are going. Let’s prevent that parental burnout before it becomes a real issue for you.

Research on burnout and mental health show that a major way to prevent burnout is through human connection. One study I found interesting looked at synchronous movement- doing the same movements- with strangers. I picture this like a group of strangers learning the steps to a tik tok dance or a flash mob. Hahahaha. The results of the study showed that adults who engage in synchronous movement to music later report liking each other better, remembering more about each other, trusting each other more, and are more likely to cooperate with each other compared to adults who engage in asynchronous movements. In simpler terms, being in synch with someone can lift your spirits!

As parents, we spend a lot of time with other humans- the little ones we created or chose to have in our homes. But how much of that time do you feel in synch with those humans? How often do you feel truly connected with your kids in a way to bring about relaxation and better moods all around? Finding ways to increase connection with your kids can prevent parental burnout.

Inside the Banish Mommy Burnout Workshop, we are going to look at these ways to change how you’re going.

1. Change the environment.
2. Use more systems and routines to hold things up instead of you holding all the things up.
3. Teeny tiny self-care habits and how to stack them to make it easy.
4. And more!

The Banish Mommy Burnout Workshop starts September 22^nd. It’s free and it’s broken up into small chunks because you know who doesn’t have a lot of time to invest in something like a workshop? Moms. Particularly moms who are feeling burnt out.

Sign up now to get in on the good stuff in the Banish Mommy Burnout Workshop!