Parental burnout: 7 tips to combat the impending crisis

1. relax

Active phases should be followed by rest and recuperation. When you are relaxed, you feel relaxed and alert. You can better assess yourself and others and make well-considered decisions. Here's how: Find an activity that allows you to switch off - yoga, painting, listening to music, going for a walk, meditating. Find a place for yourself where you can retreat, even if only for a few minutes. This could be a room in your flat, but also a park, a library, a church or a café.

2. ask for help

Those who seek advice and help are acting wisely and showing strength. This is especially true in particularly stressful situations. This relieves the pressure and leaves more room for you to take action instead of reacting. Here's how: Ask trusted people for advice or if they know someone who can help you. Accept that people solve tasks differently than you might. Ask for specific help: ask your neighbour to bring your son along when he picks up his child, ask your mother-in-law to contribute the dessert when she comes over for dinner, ask your teacher if she can recommend a tutoring course for your daughter.

Seeking advice and help shows strength.

3. do creative things

Longings and fears accompany all of us, sometimes they block our whole way of thinking and feeling because we don't let them out. Being creative, painting, crafting, singing and cooking can help to release these tensions so that we can recharge our batteries. Learn new things and at the same time improve your self-esteem by developing yourself. Here's how: Fulfil an old dream, finally take a ceramics course, learn to play the guitar or plant a herb bed.

4. stay active

Physical exercise is an important counterbalance to stressful everyday family life. You should exercise for at least ten minutes a day or three times a week for 30 minutes so that your pulse and breathing are slightly increased. Here's how: Make sure you have regular exercise times and find a type of exercise that you enjoy: cycling, walking, swimming or dancing - anything goes.

5. maintain friendships

Staying in contact and exchanging ideas with people who know you better than almost anyone else is one of the most important building blocks of mental health. Here's how: Send regular short messages and follow-ups to friends, even in stressful times. Take part in each other's lives. The rule is: a little is better than none at all.

You give your best day after day. Recognise this instead of striving for perfection.

6. talk about it

It is sometimes not so easy to put your worries and fears into words. If you succeed, it can help a lot. Suddenly, things that you haven't been able to find a solution for yourself for a long time can be organised and clarified. Here's how: Make sure you regularly have a personal conversation with someone. This could be a good friend, a family member, but also a trusted person at your child's school, in your community or at a club.

7. accept yourself

You give your best day after day. Recognise this by accepting your weaknesses as such instead of getting angry about them and striving for perfection. Here's how: Be courageous, admit mistakes, think about yourself from time to time and set your boundaries - even and especially if others don't like it. Laugh at yourself.

Source: psy.ch, an initiative of the Welfare and Health Directorate of the Canton of Berne, Social Welfare Office and Hospital Office.