How to avoid Parental burnout

by Deepa Aathereya, Seawood 

Ooops! It’s summer break for children. What do I do with them all day? How do I keep them engaged effectively?

When you hit a job burnout, it’s time you slow down or find yourself another job! But what happens when you hit a burnout at home?? I get these questions from 1 out of 5 parents whom I interact with.

LIFE is on a fast track. Managing home, office, raising awesome kids, helping our little darlings cope with the world, providing them with the BEST always. Ensuring they are happy NO MATTER WHAT!…sooo much to do, so little time, age is catching up, BLINK and kids are growing.

Amidst all these, you suddenly feel physically and mentally exhausted!

Here are 5 tips to avoid burnout and make parenting super fun!

One hour of ‘Me’ Time Everyday: C’mon, you deserve the BEST always. You are NOT a super human to sacrifice your entire life for kids and sit on their heads in the process! Actually, they need some space too. So give yourself a one hour break everyday. Walk, gym, dance, coffee with a friend, read a book do WHATEVER makes you happy! Remember, happy parents create happy families 🙂

Get your kids to be as independent as possible: Teach them to be indepent. Treat them like adults. They are way smarter than you think! So involve them in tiny little daily chores like room clean ups, grocery shopping, cooking etc! Try switching on a song and start room clean up. The game is to finish off the clean up before the song ends! Trust me, Its sooo much FUN to race against the song and get the job done.

Take – it – easy: Home work not done? Horrible exam scores? Watching too much TV? Glued to gadgets? Room soo dirty? Shoes not polished? BREATHE EASY! Win your children with love and not through fear! Kids these days go through enough pressure in school that they want to chill out back home. Be there for them as a bestie. Understand their point of view and guide them to achieve better results in all that they do. For example, while am on my laptop working, my kids finish up their project work as well . We sit together and get our job done. In this way, if one of us feels bored, the other person peps us up and together, we achieve better.

Create a Positive Environment at home: Make your home clutter free. Thumb rule in our home, anything that is unused for 90 days, is given away. Play some happy music in the mornings while waking up kids, have a balanced meal, drink loads of water, avoid watching TV late nights and above all SMILE MORE PLEASE! 🙂

Believe in yourself: You are an amazing parent. You are awesome the way you are. Someone you know may look like they figured it all out. They may have a perfect home and perfect kids. It’s their family and am sure they have their set of battles to deal with that you can’t see. Don’t compare. Every family is unique and gifted. So is yours. Keep the faith on. Chin up and keep going. Above all, Never ever ever EVER give up on your family! As I always say, ‘No place like home, no strength like family!’

Cheers to awesme Parenting.

Deepa Aathreya

 

(The Author Deepa Aathreya is an educationist and promotes homeschooling. You may know her and her work better on www.thealtschool.in.

 

An MBA, a Guinness record holder, a Harvard Certified Educationist, survivor of two near to death road accidents, sold balloons on the streets to survive, Deepa has worked with over 3 Lakh students till date and conducted 1000’s of teacher training and parental programs. )