How great is it to be on a holiday! No alarm in the morning. Nonetheless, this morning I was standing on the schoolyard, and the schools have all started again. Excitement all around! What a pity, I thought… the definite goodbye to freedom, time and peace. The clock is back in charge. Are days are packed, and stress enters back into our lives. Deadlines! Before we are really aware of it, we find ourselves wanting too much. Or perhaps not necessarily wanting it all, but doing it anyway! Feeling rushed, exhausted. Thinking, can’t I arrange things differently?!
Focus on stress-management
Employees that are too stressed are less able to focus well on their work, sure. But, at the same time they also are less able to work on a healthy relationship with their children. Stress evokes irritation, emotional outbursts towards the partner, children, friends or colleagues. It brings forth a certain lack of concentration and eventually time-consuming errors. So, how can I reduce all the stress in my life, and therefore prevent emotional exhaustion? Or in these words: how can I combine work and parenthood with more joy and ease?
Anti-stress tips for working parents
Structured planning. Be organized.
A quite important competence is to be able to plan realistically. If you plan in advance and develop routines, you will most definitely be less confronted with surprises. Think the coming day over during the previous evening. Have some back-up, on whom you can depend in cases you won’t be able to make it in time to for instance pick your kids up from school.
Keep on bonding with your children
Children who feel neglected increasingly often evoke negative attention. And, on the other side, parents that feel that they are spending too little time with their kids often feel guilty about it. A guilt that leads to more stress. And you often convey stress to your children. Even if you have a seriously busy schedule, you have to be able to somehow give your children some important and focused attention, to be sure that they feel heard and in touch. Another example: if you can’t make it to an important event, send a heartening sms or call to show your interest, to show that even though you couldn’t make it you most definitely thought of him/her! To show you’re connected!
Setting limits
Learn to say no to responsibilities that are not your priority. Only say yes to those things that correspond with your vision for your family, your work, competences or ambitions. Protect your ‘family-time’!
Don’t neglect yourself
Knowingly choose to create time and space for yourself. Whenever you are either physically or emotionally not feeling too well, you won’t be able to deliver well. To be able to bring about good and healthy result at work as well as at home, you will have to care well for yourself. Think about obvious things like: plenty of sleep, taking enough breaks, but also of: showing enough appreciation and love for your family, or regularly asking for constructive feedback at you work (to make sure that you know how things are perceived at work). Taking good care of yourself ensures that you have enough energy to stay efficient.
Be creative and laugh about your mistakes
If things go wrong. Laugh about it. Try to see the joke within your mistakes, don’t take yourself too serious. Humor strongly puts things into perspective! It helps to take another look at the situation. It drives creativity, something that often proves to be a great instigator for new solutions.
Especially for working mothers, that want to be able to combine work and motherhood on a sustainable and fruitful basis, we (as xpand) are organizing a training: ‘Work and Motherhood’, on October the 11th 2012. For further info please check www.xpand.eu
What are your main stress-causes as a working mother?
Let us know! And we are gladly getting back to you…
Jolanda Nooteboom
No comments:
Post a Comment