At a time when a variety of viruses and natural disasters and financial challenges run rampant, we need to find ways to reduce the stress levels of both you and your children. Especially for single parents, reducing stress can be a challenge that others may not understand.
With this in mind, let us look at some of the things that you can do to help you reduce your stress levels.
Getting Yourself Outdoors
You should get yourself outdoors to enjoy the fresh air, beautiful flowers, chirping birds, and sunlight. Whenever your mental health is in peril, you should consider looking at your physical health first. Getting yourself outdoors should become a habit to enhance your physical health, and improve your mental health. You can also try to do the following things to help reduce your stress as a parent and the stresses at home.
Daily Walks
Schedule daily walks with your children. Even if it is just a 30-minute walk, you will feel the benefits in your outlook and the attitude of your children. Raising good Christian children involves looking for ways that everyone can stay in good condition to avoid unnecessary health challenges that can add a great deal of stress, time demands, and financial woes.
Daily Activities
There are also daily activities that you can do with your children. Daily activities, crafts, art, reading magazines, and listening to music can create important bonding experiences for you and your children as well. A simple park visit on the way home from school or the store can do you and your children a great deal of good.
Share Outdoor Tasks At Home With Your Children
When you spend time at home, you can also let your children help you with some of the tasks. You should keep in mind that your children can be taught small, menial activities because they all need to be taught some important facts about life and daily duties to keep things in order. Some tasks they can do on their own while others can be done together, creating additional bonding.
You can assign the following tasks to your children that you can also teach them:
- Yard work
Teach your children about yard work like the simple task of lawn mowing. Gardening is also a great activity that you can do with them.
- Washing the car
Washing your car is a good activity as well. The rewards can be monetary or an extra dessert that you can give your child.
- Cleaning the garage
Clean your family’s garage together, and see what you can purge and sell. Having a yard sale is no longer the only option to discard unwanted or unneeded items. You can create accounts on selling platforms and purge things you no longer use.
Feed Your Mind
You should also try to feed your mind with enriching activities.
Subscribe to Nature Magazine
A nature magazine like Creation Illustrated can help you get your imagination working. A nature magazine with uplifting articles and stunning photography can help you see why life is worth living. The beauty of nature speaks volumes to the inner thoughts that we have, and as long as we have hope, life will always be worth living.
Spend Less Screen Time
You and your children should try to spend less screen time. By reading the printed book or magazine, you can feed your mind in a different way than what you normally do. Screens are addicting and can have negative effects on our mental, physical, and spiritual well-being.
Deal With Your Children Like An Adult and Yet See Things From Their Perspective
In some instances, you should deal with your children like an adult and still keep in mind that you see things from their perspective. They may be children, but they also need the same courtesy and respect that you give everyone else.
Exercise Honesty At Home
Always exercise honesty at home. You should try to explain important character-building issues to your children as if they are adults. Be upfront with your children and about your home situation. When you exercise honesty at home, you can teach your children about what it means to live a wonderful life by accepting the truth. Honesty in your relationship is the only way that you can keep a peaceful household.
Discipline Your Children
A great way to reduce your stress is to look at long-term solutions rather than band-aid short-term fixes. Some parents tend to spoil their children and pacify their behaviour with band-aid solutions. For example, when they throw a tantrum at the mall, you give them what they want because you do not want the embarrassment of the tantrum. This could cost you more in the long run and lead to further harm and behavioural problems.
Whenever you are disciplining your children or you have a choice as to whether or not you should discipline them, you should go ahead and do it. When you are raising a child as a single parent, you may get caught up in guilt and shame. These are feelings that you can control and not put on yourself.
If you are still torn about disciplining your children, keep this Bible verse always in your mind from Ephesians 6:4. “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord.”
You Can Do It
Handling life as a single parent can be challenging. Life as we know it is already a challenge. Raising a child requires more focus and more devotion than any other task in the world.
In the Bible, Isaiah 54:13 shares that “All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children.” Everything that you need to know about life is already taught by Scripture. However, everyday life may require that you try and get more assistance from family, friends, counsellors, and pastors. If you listen to what the Bible and help people share as well as what we shared above, you can move forward through each day with confidence, hope, peace, and the assurance that you are not alone.
