It’s OK to need a little help

Parents…. It’s Ok to need a little help.

Do you ever feel pressure to be the perfect parent? Or feel overwhelmed by all the conflicting advice out there? Do your friends all make it look easy on social media?

I’m here to tell you that now more than ever we need to be kind to ourselves as parents. Those people who make it look easy may have struggles behind the glossy sheen of Facebook and every parent has days when they just don’t feel like they can get anything right.

After being stuck at home for several weeks and with the possibility of a return to school on the horizon you might to find that your children and young people are struggling and this can show itself in lots of different ways. You may find they are withdrawing, showing signs of anxiety, or displaying behaviours, which are either new or more extreme than usual.

You may be finding that your tried and tested parenting techniques just aren’t working at the moment!

So what do you do for your young people when you feel stuck?

Let me tell you a story…

I am a trained teacher with well over a decade of experience of working with challenging behaviour in children and young people and am a recently certificated trauma informed practitioner. So when my four year old became increasingly angry in lockdown I knew exactly what to do right?

Nope

The stress of lockdown and the fact that it’s so very different and wrapped in so many more emotions when it’s your own child meant that I didn’t know what to do. So you know what I did? I asked for help. Did I feel embarrassed to do so? Absolutely. Should I feel embarrassed? Absolutely not!

Since getting help things are easier. No perfect, because no young person (or any person) is perfect, but easier. It allowed me to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. I was then able to put in to place the things I already knew.

So the moral of the story? We all need a little help sometimes, even the best of parents will sometimes need support because after all it’s the hardest (and most rewarding!) job in the world.

If you’re finding it hard to manage your child’s emotions or behaviours right now here are some of the ways you can ask for help.