The Pandemic First Aid to Burnout Moms
If you’re a mom with school-aged children, you’ll likely experience exhaustion daily. It’s both mental and physical. You feel powerless in this fight against an enemy you can’t even see.
No one has answers for you. You have to search for solutions yourself. The thing is, you can’t use your old way of thinking to solve a new problem.
Start with listing things you can still control, no matter how small they are.
Use them as the backbone to build your new way of life. Move on to the things your partner and children can help you maintain control.
Have a family meeting and talk about everyone’s responsibilities and expectations.
Assign projects to your five-year-old, so he/she has a ‘job’ to do while you working on yours. Learning life skills and engaging in creative ‘project’ help prepare kids for real-life challenges later on. The more confident they’re of their abilities, the less dependent they’re on you, and the more motivated they’ll become to learn, even on Zoom.
The last step is to dig deep into your strengths and think about a third option (that isn’t all or none) for the things you have no control.
Take a walk, or a shower can usually get your creative juice flowing.
Dr. Ivy Ge
Doctor of Pharmacy, author of The Art of Good Enough. She writes to inspire women to design their own fate. Her writings and interviews have been featured on MSNBC, Thrive Global, Working Mother magazine, Parentology, and The Times of India.
