(This blog was commissioned by P&P Career Coaching to support professional parents through the pandemic-induced lockdown. Click on the READ MORE link below for all 3 of my Covid chaos-combatting tips!)

Professional parenting has always been a delicate juggling act.

It was tricky enough to manage when the kids were at school and we had the relative space and time to establish boundaries between our roles as employees, parents and partners.

And yet now that all of our duties and responsibilities have (literally) come under one roof and our usual support network has simultaneously disappeared, we are being asked by Covid 19 to multi-task on a WHOLE NEW LEVEL.

To manage our kids’ welfare, entertainment, schooling and mental resilience; to ensure the smooth running of our house; to maintain a healthy relationship dynamic whilst in confinement AND fit in a whole day’s work without getting flustered, resentful, angry or sad.

No wonder some of us are feeling overwhelmed.

We are being asked to be strong, inspiring and positive role models both for our children and our colleagues and yet most of us have never felt more confused.

Which is why - now more than ever - it is vital to make sure that we aren’t pouring from an empty cup. And that we are prioritising our own mental and emotional sanity, as much as we are that of others.

Which isn’t easy.

So in order to help you, here are my top 3, Covid-chaos combatting tips:

MANAGE YOUR EMOTIONS

I use two methods to help me to do this. Both of which involve checking-in with how you are feeling on a regular basis.

At least three times a day to start with (when you wake up, when you go to bed and at lunchtime - increasing this as you get more into the habit) ask yourself: are you excited, frustrated, happy, sad, calm, irritated, overwhelmed, numb, confused or angry?

Simply notice what comes up.

And if your emotions are what you would describe as “negative”, don’t try to fix yourself into feeling something more “positive”.

Allow yourself to feel exactly what you are feeling without judgement or guilt.

After this, you can do either of two things:

a) Try to feel the emotion PHYSICALLY.

Ask yourself where you are sensing it in your body?

Can you describe this sensation?

If this body part had a message for you, what might it say to you?

Lastly, can you visualise it melting away like butter in a frying pan or fog in the sunshine?

OR

b) Can you DISTANCE yourself from it?

Try acknowledging that the feeling is there AND, at the same time, noticing that there is a part of you that is separate to this feeling.

Can you see that part of you is just observing the feeling and is not affected by it?

Often the only reason a negative emotion overwhelms us is because we indirectly fuel it by thinking about it (by discussing it with ourselves in our heads, for example, agreeing with ourselves, confirming that we are right, swearing under our breaths! etc).

Try to BREAK this heart/mind connection.

Refuse to focus on the emotion once you have acknowledged it (say “I have frustration in me” rather than “I am frustrated”, for example) and turn your attention to the present moment and to your senses instead.

What can you see, feel, hear, taste or touch? This will anchor you back into the now.

SHARE HOMESCHOOLING

Unless you have a degree in teaching, the patience of a saint or your kids are like well-trained pets, home-schooling is going to be challenge.

So try not to take FULL responsibility for it and divvy up what you can with your partner, according to your natural aptitude (not your pay grade or job title).

Pandemic Parenting

We are being asked to be strong, inspiring and positive role models both for our children and our colleagues and yet most of us have never felt more confused.

MANAGE YOUR EMOTIONS

SHARE HOMESCHOOLING

Lavinia Brown