Parenting is full of its ups and downs. Some days you’ll be laughing with joy, while others you’ll be tearing your hair out wondering how you’re going to make it through the day without suffering a mental breakdown. It’s all part of the parenting journey and while it’s impossible to prevent the hard days, there are ways to make them easier to deal with.
Here, we’ll look at some of the top things to remember on those difficult parenting days to help get you through.
Some Days Are Just Hard
It sucks, but some days parenting is going to be hard. Nothing will change that but going into it with the right attitude can make getting through the tough days a lot easier.
Accepting it’s just a bad day enables you to let go of the frustration and mentally prepare yourself for a better day tomorrow. It doesn’t make a difference to how hard the day actually is, but it does provide a level of peace of mind when you accept the day for what it is, rather than trying to fight against it.
Other Parents Aren’t Doing Better
On those tough days, it’s easy to put yourself down and tell yourself how well other parents are doing. However, what you need to remember is that other parents aren’t actually doing any better than you.
Social media has played a big part in parents feeling inadequate. When all you see is your friends, family and colleagues posting statuses and pictures of their happy children, checking in to all kinds of exciting places, it does make you wonder how they do it. However, the thing with social media, is that nobody wants to post the bad things. That picture you see of your friend’s child helping out in the kitchen, doesn’t show the epic meltdown they had earlier that day. People post their highlights, so you don’t actually get to see the real truth behind the statuses and photos.
Every single parent struggle, even if it might not show. So, stop comparing yourself to others and realize you’re doing just as well as they are.
You Are The Center Of Your Child’s World
You might feel like a rubbish parent on those tough days, but to your child, you’re their world. Sure, it might not feel like it when they’re having what feels like their millionth meltdown of the morning, but you are your child’s rock.
So, even though it may be tough, remembering your child needs and loves you, can make the hard days a lot more bearable.
There Is No Such Thing As A Perfect Parent
Following on from remembering other parents aren’t doing it better, it’s also good to remember that there is no such thing as a perfect parent. They don’t exist! Every parent makes mistakes and certainly doesn’t get it right first time.
Comparing yourself to others isn’t going to help, it will only make you feel worse. Each of us has our own strengths and weaknesses which make us a great parent in different ways to others. So, embrace your strengths and remember, perfect just doesn’t exist.
You Can Get Through This
It’s a nightmare of a day. You’re exhausted, sleep deprived, worn down by the constant tantrums and meltdowns and it feels like at any moment you’re going to launch into a full-on mental breakdown. However, you can, and you will get through this!
Tough times don’t last forever, especially in the world of parenting. Every difficult phase, from the sleepless nights to potty training, passes within time. The great thing about tough days is, they literally last a day. So, by the time you wake up in the morning, your perspective will be different, and you’ll feel much more positive. So, don’t worry, you’ve got this! It’s just one bad day.
Go Easy On Yourself
The last thing you need on a tough parenting day, is to beat yourself up. It’s common to feel guilty, inadequate and like the worst parent in the world on the tough days. However, repeating that belief to yourself is only going to make the day tougher.
You need to learn to go easy on yourself during the bad days. Do what you can, don’t worry about the things you can’t do and aim to have an early night. Get the kids in bed, enjoy a little you time and then get some much-needed sleep, ready to tackle the next day. You’ll often find that you wake up feeling a lot more positive and the tough times yesterday will soon be long forgotten!
It Won’t Last Forever
Above all else, remember that it won’t last forever. Tough times never do! Most tough parenting days tend to last just 24-hours. Of course, there may be the odd occasion a tough day turns into a tough week! However, most of the time after 24-hours the tough times will have passed, and you’ll soon forget they ever occurred.
Conclusion
So, yes, you’re going to have tough parenting days. Sometimes there’s nothing you can do to make them any easier. However, reminding yourself of the points above will help to make you cope with them a little better. Parenting is the hardest job in the world and no two days are ever the same. So, don’t fight the bad days – ride through them!
Do you have any additional things you tell yourself when trying to make it through the tough parenting days? Share them in the comments below.
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