Parenting Burnout, 4 Devastating Signs
January 2, 2021 Adrienne Brown 0 Comments
Recognizing the signs of parenting burnout is particularly important because it can destroy your home if not stopped.
Some days in the life of a mother it gets hard. I am talking about times that get so hard that you just want to leave, run away and be in hiding for fifty years. This can be the first stage of parenting burnout.
Do you know what I am saying? During my years of being a mother whether working outside the home or staying home with my children, I have been in both situations. Each time, the stages of parenting burnout crept up on me.
When things are not normal
Each time I recognized that something was going terribly wrong with me. I felt extreme overwhelm, frustration, tiredness and I didn’t want to parent anymore.
You know, as moms, we might not realize that we are in the stages of parental burnout. It’s because we want to be the best moms to our children that we often sacrifice our health and comfort. We push the symptoms to the background trying to give our family everything that we have.
But if we are to remain sane and healthy for our families and ourselves, we need to recognize the beginning stages of parenting burnout in order to fix ourselves.
Parenting burnout can cause crushing feelings of being bombarded
This is one of the first overwhelming feelings that I experienced during the onset of parenting burnout. Walking through your house it feels as if everything and everyone is trying to get a piece of you. It is mind crippling at the time. This is not your everyday pestering from your children. No, it feels as if you are being held down and crushed. This was one of the tell, tell symptoms that I didn’t know at the time.
It can cause feelings of Unnecessariness
When your mind starts telling you that you are not necessary and you agree with it, this is definitely a symptom of parenting burnout. I can remember hearing in my head that my family didn’t need me, that they would be happy if I just left.
It didn’t matter that no one has ever said that to me, I was telling myself this lie. I was hearing the wrong voices.
I didn’t feel suicidal, I just thought that they would be better off if I left. Has this ever happened to you? I happened to mention this to one of my sons years later, you know what he said to me? ‘The devil wants you to believe that!’ Wow, I do believe that is the straight truth.
Inundating feelings of saddens can be another sign
Have you ever been so sad that you just start to cry for no known reason? Yep, that’s how I felt during the stages of my parenting burnout. I just cried all the dang time.
While hiding it from everyone else, I would cry in my car, in my shower, and in bed at night. Although I knew it was not normal, I still did not realize that it was a stage of parenting burnout.
We need the strong safe support of other moms in these times.
Parenting burnout can also cause extreme paranoia
Yes, that is right parenting burnout will have you thinking all sorts of crazy things. Having a certain level of intuition is normal and good for your safety.
Yet, when intuitions are on overdrive that’s not normal. When my fears and suspicions got to the place to where I saw doom in nearly everything, I knew that I truly needed to get some support.
All the above symptoms will manifest themselves when you are struggling throw parenting burnout. Don’t ignore the symptoms, seek some support.
Remember it is not a bad thing when we find ourselves exhausted. It happens very easily when you are an overachiever like I am.
Especially when you want everything, and everyone taken care of at the best level, parenting burnout is knocking at your proverbial door.
Just remember that sometimes the best level is not possible. So, if you are feeling any of these symptoms find a trusting source of support. So you can recover from it and get back to your awesome self!
You can use this👇🏽 journal to help you distinguish the voices you are bombarded with everyday!