• Contact Now Schedule an Appointment

    1570 The Alameda | San Jose, CA 95126
    mcarlisle@criticalpathcounseling.com | (408) 780-1150

  • Critial Path Counseling

    • Home
    • About
      • Resources
        • Recent News
        • Mental Health Links
        • Physical Health Links
      • Getting Started
        • FAQs
        • Rates and Insurance
        • Client Forms
        • Appointment Request
    • Work Stress
      • Work Relationship Consultation
      • Work Stress Management
    • CBT
      • What is CBT?
      • Anxiety Therapy & Treatment
      • Depression Therapy
      • OCD Therapy
    • Relationships
      • Communication Skills Counseling
      • Marriage Counseling
      • Parenting Skills Counseling
      • Christian Counseling Services
    • Our Approach
      • Problems We Treat
        • Adult ADD
        • Anxiety Disorders
        • Bi-Polar Disorder
        • Chronic Depression
        • Divorce Transition
        • Infidelity
        • Personality Disorders
        • Prolonged Grief
        • OCD – Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
        • Trauma / PTSD
        • Workaholism
      • CBT & DBT: A Customized Strategy
      • Our Clients
    • Assessment Login
    • Contact
    • Blog

    3 Emotional Challenges of Being a Stay-at-Home Mom — And How to Overcome Them!

    March 1, 2019

    Being a stay-at-home mom can be very rewarding, but also incredibly challenging. There’s the guilt about not bringing home a paycheck combined with, at times, significant loneliness. If you’ve ever felt joy when a salesman shows up unannounced at your front door, you know what I’m talking about! OMG! An adult to talk to during the day! (Right? lol).

    Here are three emotional challenges that come along with being a stay-at-home mom and how you can overcome them.

    1. The Frustration of Not Finishing What You Start

    Before you became a mom, you were always on top of things. Not only did you work full time, you also managed to keep the house clean and have the laundry done as well.

    Now it seems like you can’t finish one project.

    There are always dirty dishes in the sink, laundry is clean but sitting in the drier becoming more and more wrinkled, cheerios adorn every flat surface of your once pristine car, and your family is subsisting on frozen pizzas because grocery shopping is often too much to handle.

    It’s perfectly normal for mothers, especially new mothers, to constantly need to shift the hierarchy of their priority list.

    Consider working with friends on larger projects you could use help with. If you need to completely clean out and reorganize the garage before summer, when bikes and kayaks and other sporting equipment must be accessible, call up a friend or two for help. You’ll get the job done faster and have some much-needed adult time.

    Also, see if a friend or family member can watch the kids while you spend an hour or two a week grocery shopping. This will help you stock up on the supplies you need for the week, and also give you some time to be all by yourself!

    And finally, see if you can get up before your children. Even an extra half hour in the morning will help you accomplish one extra task a day, and that will make you feel great (A lot easier said than done, though, especially if you have a newborn).

    1. Isolation and Boredom

    You were once surrounded by people in your office, cracking jokes and giving presentations in a plush conference room. Now you spend most days looking for socks and having full-on conversations with yourself. Out loud.

    Being a stay-at-home mom can be incredibly isolating. And, though raising children is, on one hand, very rewarding, if we’re going to be honest, there are plenty of days when the boredom is mind-numbing.

    Though it isn’t always easy finding time to nurture your social needs, it’s important that you make socializing a priority. Plan regular grown-up gatherings. Take a class once a week, or even a couple of times a month. Walk around the neighborhood every night with a friend. It’s great to get together with other stay-at-home moms. Not only can you have fun, but you can support each other as well.

    1. Questioning Your Parenting Skills

    Stay-at-home moms eat, sleep, and breathe being a parent. There is almost no break from it, which makes it very easy to become somewhat obsessed and begin to question every parenting decision you make.

    Connecting with other stay-at-home moms, whether in person or in a chat room, will help you gain perspective on your situation. Also, when you begin to worry and obsess over a recent decision you’ve made, step back and look at the bigger picture. Instead of always asking, “Did I do this or that right,” begin asking, “Is my family happy and healthy?” If you can answer yes to those second questions, then you KNOW you’re doing plenty right!

    Sometimes, talking with a neutral third party, like a family therapist, can help you gain perspective on your life and how being a stay-at-home mom is affecting you on a day-to-day basis. If you’re interested in talking with someone, please contact me today. I would be happy to speak with you about how I may be able to help.

    Share this:

    • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
    • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

    Related

    Filed Under: New Mother

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


    1570 The Alameda
    San Jose, CA 95126

    (408) 780-1150
    mcarlisle@criticalpathcounseling.com

    Contact Today

    By submitting this form via this web portal, you acknowledge and accept the risks of communicating your health information via this unencrypted email and electronic messaging and wish to continue despite those risks. By clicking "Yes, I want to submit this form" you agree to hold Brighter Vision harmless for unauthorized use, disclosure, or access of your protected health information sent via this electronic means.

    Critical Path Counseling
    mcarlisle@criticalpathcounseling.com | (408) 780-1150

    A Website by Brighter Vision | Privacy Policy

    Copyright © 2021 · Brooklyn on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in