Practicing self-care during COVID-19 is hard as a parent. It’s so easy to put the needs of others, especially our children, before our own. However, practicing self-care during COVID-19 is crucial if we want to prevent parental burnout. When we are experiencing a crisis, like COVID-19, our normal systems have been turned upside down.

When it comes to self-care and preventing burnout, I can’t help but think of what it’s like to get ready for a family trip and traveling on an airplane. It’s kind of like going to the airport with all of your luggage ready to go. Everyone is so excited for the upcoming trip. But…then, there is some sort of change to the itinerary. In moments like these, our children, look to us for guidance, reassurance, and stability. To be able to offer these to them, we need to have our feelings and stressors under control. If we continually push our needs to the side, there is a higher likelihood of experiencing burnout. When we feel stressed, overwhelmed, and burned out, we are not able to take care of those that we love.

What’s the antidote to prevent parental burnout?

Practicing intentional self-care.

What is self-care?

Self-care is more than taking a bubble bath, meeting a friend for coffee, or going to a yoga class.

Instead, it is intentional and deliberate. It’s something that we do to take care of our emotional, physical, and social needs. When we practice self-care, we are protecting our own well-being and happiness. When you are preparing to take off on an airplane, the flight attendants review the plane safety features and procedures for an in-flight emergency. If the cabin pressure changes on the plane and oxygen masks are needed, the flight attendants instruct you to put your mask on first BEFORE helping those around you. This same principle applies to practice self-care to prevent parental burnout.

Here are some examples of physical self-care:

• Follow a healthy diet
• Drink enough water
• Engage in physical activity
• Get enough sleep

Here are some examples of emotional self-care:

• Identify how we are feeling
• Express your emotions
• Put boundaries in place
• Journal about how you are feeling
• Use adult coloring books

Here are some examples of social self-care:

• Schedule regular conversations with friends and family members
• Make time to debrief at the end of the day with a coworker, spouse, or trusted friend

Using Mindfulness and Gratitude to Practice Self-Care 

I’ve found that practicing daily gratitude and mindfulness to be helpful for my personal self-care to help prevent parental burnout. When it comes to practicing self-care, it can be hard to set aside time (or even a moment) for ourselves. It’s important to schedule a time during the day to practice self-care. This can be as little as 15-30 minutes each day.

Here are some ways that can help with self-care: 

• Calm (link: https://www.calm.com/). Calm’s mission is to help people become happier and healthier. Calm has meditations for some of the most common mental health concerns like stress, anxiety, depression, and insomnia.
• Headspace (link: https://www.headspace.com) Headspace is a mindfulness meditation app with all sorts of topics. They have hundreds of guided meditations on everything from stress to sleep. Also, there are over 40 mindfulness exercises for cooking, eating, commuting, and more. Since they are short meditations, they are great to use for busy schedules.