Here’s How To Manage Stress As A Working Mom

You’ve burnt yourself out, haven’t you?

It was bound to happen if you joined motherhood a short time ago. Kids are a happy handful.

If you’re here looking for sure-fire stress management ideas for working moms, you’re at the right place.

Here are 7 stress management ideas that work almost every day (from my experience and other working moms).

1. Relaxation:

I’m not talking about taking a few minutes between work or your tasks, or taking a small breather, that helps, but it’s not the kind of relaxation I mean.

I’m talking about dedicating a bit of time (30 minutes to an hour) to exercise to help you mentally relax.

For me, soaking in a warm bath does the job, there’s this therapeutic effect I just can’t put into words.

Maybe soaking up isn’t your stuff, but there are many other things you can do to elevate your mood or sleep better (especially after spending a lot of time with your kids).

You can consider;

• Listening to music,
• Reading a book,
• Practicing yoga,
• Meditating,
• Or even engaging in one of your less taxing hobbies.

2. Self-care:

If you’re thinking “You already mentioned relaxation, so what’s the difference, then let me make a little clarification.

Relaxation has more effects on your mind, and mood, mostly short-term immediate benefits like listening to music to feel happy or calm after an angry bout, or soaking to relieve stress after dealing with an annoying client.

Self-care is more of an all-round relief – mental, emotional, and physical. Its benefits are more long-term.

Now that’s out of the way, engaging in self-care has long-term effects on relieving your stress.

Consider;

• Going for therapy and medical check-ups if you had any childbirth complications,
• Exercising regularly to stay fit,
• Setting boundaries to protect your mental health (learn to say no),
• Spending time with people who love you.

Hey mamas, I want to add this, I know sometimes to deal with workloads, we take caffeine and alcohol and sometimes forgo sleep.

In the short term, you may not notice anything, but when you do so long term, the effects are terrible, I’m talking about increased stress, poor physical health, negative moods, and so on, it’s quite a long list. So please try as much as possible not to rely on those long-term.

3. Time Management:

As busy moms, you and I undoubtedly know the importance of time, between increased tasks and the desire to get enough rest, it feels like there’s barely enough time for anything.

In this other article, I extensively shared some time management tips that would boost your productivity and help you manage stress effectively.

Be sure to check it out!

4. Change Your Mindset:

It’s time to stop worrying about things outside your control.

As moms, we overthink a lot, lol, I mean a whole lot, it’s as if having a child opens a door to a whole new world of overthinking possibilities.

Sometimes we overthink things with easy solutions, things that require no solutions, and things we can’t even control, like;

• our children getting into fights on their first day of school,
• our parents old age and if they’ll have much time to spend with us or our kids,
• inflation and how it’ll affect us with having extra mouth(s) to feed…

I mean the list is practically endless, and if you want to spend time worrying about all those, you’ll not only build anxiety, you’ll also not get much done.

I thought of a different approach, instead of trying to control things like that, we could just make counter plans (being either reactive or proactive), here let me give you some examples;

• To reduce the chances of our kids getting into fights on their first day of school, we can enroll them in schools with zero-tolerance policies on fights and bullying, and also prep our kids for their first day.
• If you’re worried about how much time your parents have to spend with you or your kids, just keep aside time each week to spend family time with your parents, you could even do it on Saturdays or Sundays.
• As for inflation, I got nothing ladies….. just kidding, a little planning, bulk purchases, and extra jobs could fix that too.

See, these are just 3 ideas, aside from these, there are many other ways you could handle situations outside your control, you just need to take a deep breath, and change how you think about things.

That’s not all about changing your mindset, learn to celebrate small victories, it may not mean much, but over time, small things add up, and each of those victories gives your mood a little positive shift, keeping your energy happy, strong, and stress-free.

That’s a whole new topic, but I’ll be sure to discuss it thoroughly, if sign up for my newsletter now, you’d be sure to get an update when it’s live.

5. Preserve Your Mental Well-being:

“What now? You already mentioned relaxation and self-care, this is beginning to feel like a lot”

Stress management tips being a little stressful to follow, the irony of it huh?

Actually, there’s not much to do in between, these ideas I recommend are more like everyday stuff and can fit in between a few minutes.

Some can even be subconsciously combined, some ways to preserve your mental well-being are;

• limiting your screen time,
• laughing often,
• practicing gratitude,

Not anything time-consuming or complex, basically combining self-cafe routines with relaxation will help boost your mental well-being.

Give it a shot, you’ll feel the difference in a week or even less 😉

6. Join or Build a Support System:

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”

Who recognizes that quote? Let me know in the comments 😉

Anyways, back to the point, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, tired, and anxious when you do things as a one-woman army.

I find support groups to be awesome for relieving stress, avoiding detours, and just building positivity.

The wonderful thing is, there’s a community for literally everything, you just need to find yours.

If you don’t know how to find your community, give Facebook and Reddit a shot.

7. Bonus Tips:

I’ve covered some of the essentials, so next I’ll just list a bunch of things I do that help me manage stress (and will help you too) but don’t really belong in any category.

• Prepare meals in advance or use a meal planner,
• Keep your Workspace organized,
• Delegate when you can,
• Spend some time with nature,
• Use to-do lists,
• Prioritize,
• Spend time with loved ones,
• Say No,
• Say No,
• And finally, Say No.

Experiment and Mix-Up:

I know I said these are sure-fire stress management ideas, and they are.

However, you don’t have to follow them by the book, we’re all different moms doing different stuff, feel free to experiment, mix up, and find your element.

You could also listen in on my podcast, A (Mostly) Stay-at-Home Mom, where I share weekly tips for busy moms earning or looking to earn a side income. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more!