That’s a really big thing for parents isn’t it? Take right now for example, my heart is palpitating, I am getting very short tempered and my body is overheating. This is me stressed out!
It shouldn’t be like this. I am sitting in the garden and the sun is shining but I have tons to do. This is the problem; I have far too much to do and so little time to do it.
Amongst other things I have a newsletter to send out and for some reasons I am not happy with it. When is it time to give up on the idea that it will be exactly how I want it to be and accept that it will be just good enough?
I am trying to think about what is going wrong with it and waiting for that light bulb moment to give me a clue, but right now I have 2 children hitting each other with tennis rackets and I know one of them will come running to me crying in just half a second... so my thoughts are racing: newsletter, children hitting each other, children hitting each other, newsletter... My brain has come to boiling point...
Frustration is one of the biggest stress trigger for mothers. Think about it, you are stressed because something is not going quite as you would like it to be in your life. It can be the housework mounting enormously when you are busy with other duties, it can be people picking on all your resources at the same time, it could be that you are saying “yes” a stupid amount of times and now what? You are wondering why you have done this and how you are going to cope with it all! IF you are going to cope with it all! And while you are wondering this, the list gets bigger! You see? FRUSTRATION all along!
Let’s try to prevent it before the frustration happens:
1. Learn to say “no”. You see easy, “NO” I have just said it. Now let’s practice on the one with the puppy dog eyes who is begging you ... not that easy... How about offering realistic alternatives? How about simply accept that you can’t please everyone, so start with pleasing yourself for goodness sakes!
2. Plan, plan, PLAN! Very important the plan! Without the plan you sink under unimportant stuff and guess what, you forget about the very important ones. Practice the urgent/important matrix. Make list of what you need to do and give each a priority number as below.
| | Important | Not Important |
| Urgent | 1- Absolute Priority | 2- Move on to this |
| Not Urgent | 3- Now it is a good time for this one | 4- Do you really need to do it? |
3. Also practice the “perfection DOES NOT exist” mantra. Repeat it over and over again! Perfection is a myth, “good enough” is the reality!
4. Finally know the signs your body is sending you to communicate with you. Mine tells me “Feel the heat woman!!” that’s when I know that something bad can happen if I don’t take time to breathe and do something enjoyable.
Remember that in the long run stress can break you. Stress is a major cause for health problems such as heart attacks, unhealthy high or low blood pressure and other diseases like cancer.
A little bit of stress is healthy to achieve what you want to. Too much stress can ruin your life and your relationships with others especially your loved ones. So make the decision to stop when you know it is necessary and if you can't stop, slow down. Make choices, not everything needs you to worry about it!
Photo Credit Brittney Bush