Ways to Reduce Mom Stress

When the days of mom stress are long and full, you need some ways to reduce stress. Ways to handle that mommy stress that is stealing your joy and keeping you from being the mom you want to be each day.

Mommy Stress is that overwhelmed feeling you get when everything around you is crazy.

Every mom feels it at every stage of motherhood.

From getting babies to nap on a schedule to figuring out what is causing a baby to cry to teaching toddlers the word “No” to helping kids with schoolwork to running kids around as they go from one activity to another… Then, teaching them to drive, choosing colleges, watching them interview for jobs, making huge purchases for cars and houses… dating, school pressures… every stage of motherhood includes some amount of stress.

I have friends at all ages of the spectrum.

My friends with babies and toddlers feel stress.

My friends with school age kids feel stress.

My friends with high schoolers feel stress.

My friends with adult kids feel stress!

My friends with kids in school feel stress and my friends who homeschool feel stress.

For sure, my boarding mom friends feel the stress.

We all feel it. It might all be very different but we all. feel. stress.

The pressure of mothering.

There are days I wish that I could blindfold myself from the world and escape away…

There are days that just doing the laundry is a huge task and grocery shopping feels like the biggest job on earth.

Sometimes the thought of bedtime is exhausting and the idea of bath night makes me want to put the kids to bed dirty.

I’m feeling this mommy stress often just due to the fact that our lives are so crazy right now and I’m mothering through constant moving and transition.

I know we all have things we do to cope with mom stress but I thought I’d put together my list here for you… get ready to add to the list at the end!

Ways To Reduce Stress:

1} Time alone with God. Nothing works as well as that. Whether it is getting to church for a small Bible study or scheduling a prayer night with other moms or just turning on some worship music… you will feel amazingly refreshed after just a short time in His presence. I promise.

2} Coffee, tea, hot chocolate. take 5 minutes to sit down and enjoy your favorite treat. Always helps. Feel free to add M&Ms or ice cream.

3} Call another mom in the same season of motherhood as you. No one understands like someone going through it with you. Call them. Have them share what is crazy about their life. It will help.

4} Call another mom who is one season ahead of you. Ask them questions. Tell them what you are going through. They will not only understand but will have advice because they’ve been there and made it through.

5} Let the house be a mess. This one is REALLY hard for me. I have a hard time resting and relaxing if things are not picked up and the house is a mess. Sometimes, I have to be ok with jobs unfinished and teach myself to relax in the midst of chaos.

6} Go for a drive. This is SO nice. Put the kids in car seats, start a movie if you have that capability in your vehicle, drive through for a vanilla coke at Sonic and drive away through the country or on a side road or anywhere really… Totally worth the 3 or 4 dollars in gas!

7} Read a book. Not a study book or a self help book or a learning book or anything that will make you feel pressure to change or do something different. Just escape your day and travel to wherever your book takes you. Enjoy a story, get immersed in something you have no responsibility to fix, clean or repair and let yourself relax. Here are a few of my favorites.

8} Journal. Draw. Write. Color. There are moments I have to just grab my laptop and write. Whether it is a post I never publish or a blank word document that I fill with thoughts or a journal page where I write scripture… this helps calm my nerves and put words to the stress around me.

9} Get out of the house. Go to the mall. Visit a friend. Sit at the park. My home can be the most restful place and the most stressful place all at the same time. Sometimes I just need to leave the to do lists and the laundry piles and the messy bathroom and see something of the world around me. I come back home refreshed and ready to tackle my house.

10} Get a babysitter. Spend time with your spouse. Feel like an adult. Here are 20 Dates Ideas You BOTH will Love!

11} Remember that your kids are growing up and your season with them is actually very short.

12} Don’t try so hard. The world does NOT rest on your shoulders. The world will go on if you make a mistake. God can handle our stress and He will help us through it all.

13} Working out! Getting some exercise, going for a walk or run, pushing the kids in the stroller, hiking through the woods, going for a bike ride… all GREAT ways to de-stress!

14} Get healthy! Check out my post on Practical Tips for Loosing Weight and feeling so much better!

15} Encourage Yourself and Get Joy! Don’t feel guilty taking care of YOU.

What can you add to the list?

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