A new survey has found out that the majority of parents are exhausted before their day even begins. While a lot of mothers knew that this motherhood journey was going to be tiring, they may have underestimated just how tired they would be. They also may not have realized that you are not just tired when you have a newborn, that moms of toddlers, children, and teenagers are almost just as tired. If you are not up to getting some time for yourself after the kids have gone to bed, you are up all night worried about your teenager who is out.
According to Study Finds, a new survey found that 2 in 3 parents of children under the age of 6 feel exhausted before their day even starts. The survey was done on 2,000 parents and it was conducted by OnePoll, on behalf of Babyganics.
The survey also aimed to look deeper into why these parents are tired, and 62% stated that they feel a lot of pressure to live up to an unrealistic expectation of them, and this speaks a lot to parental insecurity.
- Almost half of the parents (47%) stated that they often seek validation from others about how they parent. They want to make sure that they are doing a good job and raising their children right.
- This could be because 28% of respondents said that they feel like they are constantly being judged for how they parent, and that motherhood is often portrayed in the media in a fictional way, and that it rarely reflects what being a parent actually looks like.
- The media and Hollywood can make parenting look easy, but 73% stated that becoming a parent was the most difficult stage of their lives.
All of this means that mom and dad will use different methods to try and conceal how they feel about their parenting. Three in five said that they hide their emotions as parents because they are fearful of the judgment they will receive from other people. It sounds like it is time to start normalizing that being a parent is about being happy all the time. Sometimes, it can be hard, and if society can normalize this then more parents will feel more supported and like they can open up more. This means that the mental health of parents can only be improved if people (and society) take it more seriously.
Sources: Study Finds, OnePoll, Babyganics