As the parent of a teen, especially a teen who is highly sensitive, it is almost impossible for you not to feel overwhelmed from time to time.
When you have your own challenges you have to face in life like going to work, paying bills, managing your relationships, and providing for your family, and you also have to take care of an emotional and often unpredictable teenager, it can be easy for you to start to feel burnt out.
Coming home after a long day at work only to have to deal with your teen lashing out in anger, address your teen’s problem behaviors, be mindful of everything you say in order to avoid triggering your teen, or offer emotional support as your teen goes through a crisis can start to wear you down emotionally. This burnout can have a negative impact on the relationship between you and your teen, and it will eventually begin to take a toll on your mental health.
While it is normal for you to have times when you feel overwhelmed or emotionally exhausted while parenting your teen, there are steps you can take to ensure that this feeling doesn’t consume you.
Here are our top ten tips for beating burnout:
1. Give yourself grace
All too often, people expect parents to be superheroes. They believe you should be able to juggle advancing your career, making meals for the family, driving your kids to all of their extracurricular activities, checking homework, paying bills, volunteering at the school, and so much more, all without letting a single ball drop and with a huge smile on your face.
This expectation is unrealistic, and it can lead to emotional exhaustion.
Remember, it’s okay not to be perfect. Acknowledging your imperfections, refusing to place undue pressure on yourself, and allowing yourself the grace to make mistakes will keep you from becoming emotionally drained and burning out.
2. Practice stress management
Stress is not always bad. When you are in a dangerous situation, your body’s stress response can be the difference between life and death.
However, when you are not in a life-threatening situation and are still feeling overwhelmed with stress, it can be harmful to your physical, emotional, and mental health, leading to burnout.
Practicing stress management and taking steps to reduce your stress levels can work wonders when it comes to beating burnout. Whether this means practicing meditation, going on a run, expressing yourself through art, or completing deep breathing exercises, managing your stress before it becomes overwhelming will help keep you from feeling burnt out.
3. Plan ahead
When you face stressful situations that are within your control, you can alleviate some of the stress by planning ahead.
Do you feel stressed out and upset when your teen continues to violate curfew? Establish clear boundaries and create a plan for what to do when these boundaries are crossed.
Do you know that you have a tendency to say things that trigger your teen when you don’t get enough sleep at night? Create a consistent sleep schedule that will allow you to get more rest.
Planning ahead can help you prepare for stressful situations before they become too draining or exhausting.
4. Recognize when situations are out of your control
While there are stressors that you can fix or eliminate through hard work and careful planning, there will also be situations where there is nothing you can do to make things better. For example, as the parent of a highly sensitive teen, there may be days when nothing you say or do seems to help your teen cope with their big emotions or stop their problem behaviors.
Unfortunately, too many parents blame themselves and put pressure on themselves to resolve these situations. They think if they can only just try harder or do more, then maybe their teen will feel better. This pressure and self-blame cause parents to experience burnout.
In order to combat this, it’s important to recognize that there will be situations that are out of your control and know that your best is enough.
5. Don’t be afraid to ask for help
Asking for help does not make you weak. If you are having a difficult time trying to fight burnout and find the emotional strength to support your highly sensitive teen, do not be afraid to reach out to friends, families, or a professional for assistance.
6. Don’t neglect self-care
Making time for yourself and the activities that make you feel refreshed and at peace is essential for combating burnout. Too many parents believe that taking the time to watch their favorite show, practice their hobby, or do other activities they enjoy makes them selfish.
This couldn’t be further from the truth.
Practicing self-care reduces stress and anxiety, and it helps you to feel rejuvenated and ready to tackle any challenges that come your way.
7. Get plenty of sleep
Physical exhaustion will only exacerbate emotional exhaustion. If you are not getting an adequate amount of sleep each night, you can become prone to irritability, frustration, anger, and bitterness, which will be damaging to your relationship with your teen and make it easy for you to feel emotionally drained.
You can help prevent yourself from feeling burnt out by practicing good sleep hygiene and ensuring that you get plenty of rest every day.
8. Practice gratitude
One of the best ways to prevent burnout is to practice gratitude. When you take the time to consider everything you are grateful for and to express this gratitude, it will help you have a more positive outlook on your present situation.
Practicing gratitude can give you the optimism and energy you need to reduce your emotional exhaustion and face another day.
9. Take stock of your feelings
Many people do not realize that they are heading toward burnout until it’s too late. Practicing self-awareness and taking time each day to check in with yourself and your emotions can help you learn to recognize when you are heading toward burnout.
Whether this means spending time meditating each day or taking up journaling, learning to take stock of your emotions can go a long way to reducing emotional burdens before they start to become too much to handle.
10. Offer compassion
In addition to giving yourself grace and compassion, it’s important for you to extend this compassion to your teen. When you put yourself in their shoes and try to understand what they are going through, it can help you reframe any negative experiences and reduce your frustration and anger.
Although this is often easier said than done, try your best to remain compassionate with yourself and others. It’s hard to be upset with someone when you are looking at a situation from their point of view, offering them grace for their mistakes, and actively trying to understand why they feel the way that they do.
When you start to feel burnout, remember to try out these ten strategies. You might be surprised by how these seemingly small steps can make a major difference in your life.