Coaching to Reduce Parenting Stress
Posted on July 12, 2016 by Jodi Peary, One of Thousands of Relationship Coaches on Noomii.
Stress in parenting may increase as a result of family changes, such as an increase in marital conflict, divorce, or a change to co-parenting.
Parenting is Joyful and Stressful
Despite considerable strengths as professionals and parents, it is easy for us to become self-critical and depleted as well as to harbor feelings of guilt, failure, and the sense of not succeeding as parents. The effort to bring one human child to maturity creates profound joy but may also be a source for significant stress.
Stress in parenting may increase as a result of family changes, such as an increase in marital conflict, divorce, a movement to co-parenting, and the blending of families. Regardless of the parent’s and the child’s psychological situations, parenting skills can falter when a parent is under stress or experiencing other intense emotions.
Factors That Increase Stress During Times of Family Change
Raising a child requires an enormous expenditure of resources. Simultaneously, we, as parents, must confront idealized images of parenthood, motherhood, and fatherhood. We may feel guilty or inadequate as a result of finding that we are unable to live up to the unrealistic standards set for parenting and lifestyle by our culture.
When confronting divorce we may individually find that our child-care burden is higher and our child care resources are lower, due to decreases in support from others and increases in demands of work.
In addition, with less in the way of sustenance and resources we must attempt to balance the demands of parenting with the demands placed upon us as a result of a divorce and the need to take care of ourselves.
If we pay attention, we will notice the way we are experiencing the stress of parenting during difficult times within our bodies, thoughts, and feelings. Mindful parenting helps us to accept our feelings of stress with self-compassion. In parenting coaching, we learn to shift from questioning “What is wrong with me?” to posing the question “What do I need?” In parenting coaching, we create a plan to take better care of ourselves and to obtain the additional resources we need to parent well. Mindful Parenting ClassesIn Mindful Parenting Classes we learn:
-to shift from doing mode to being mode with our children; -to understand fundamental practices for making co-parenting healthier for parents and children; -to improve co-parenting and co-parenting relationships -to trigger positive emotional states; -to slow down automatic reactions; -to choose how and if we want to react; -to understand that what we communicate non-verbally or on an emotional level may be more important for our children and their attachment then what we say and do; -to take better care of our selves; -to cultivate more empathy and compassion for our selves and our children; -ways to reduce parenting stress and parental reactivity to stress, to recognize our own limits, and to engage in perspective taking.