This was a response to a suggestion to read an online article, “Parents feel stress of raising their children“** with the comment, “Are Parents More Stressed than Ever?”
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I’ve read the article, and although it’s based from research in Australia, I think this is a common sense of fear and frustration in general.
Personally, I don’t think parents are more stressed now than they were, say, 20, 50, 70, 300, 2,000 or 4,000 years ago… it’s just that we parents have, by nature of parenting a growing person, a stress level unique to our situations.
As my 2nd ex-wife is fond of saying, “sure she’s scared and nervous. She’s as old as she’s ever been” – speaking of our daughter (one of a number of children) who was anxious about a school situation.
And she’s right – we (parents) are as old as we’ve ever been, meaning that this moment of frustration and fear we have with our children is as scary as it’s ever been at any given moment in time.
Just ask the parent who’s had to retrieve his or her child out of juvenile detention, or even jail. The fear we felt when we first found out Billy or Susie was watching unauthorised movies at a friends’ house – years ago – pales in comparison.
New technology adds to the stress as much as it alleviates from it. We parents need to embrace new technology and spend time learning how to maneuver around it just the same as our children are doing. That way we parents won’t be blindsided by a rogue social networking, email, or website account.
One thing that adds to stress is living outside our means. If we’re working overtime to make ends meet after a holiday spending spree, vacation trip, or ‘essential’ purchase, the money we get is paid for with something we’ll never be able to afford – lost time with the children. If at all possible, one parent needs to be home with the children, managing the home (if the kids are at school) and managing the neighborhood networking.
Easier said than done for single parents, I know. But even if a single parent can’t provide this VITAL home and relationship management, the parent can instill in the children the value of a homemaker.
We need to bring people back home, where families can not just eat and sleep, but thrive.
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** article links:
http://lovingparentnetwork.com/parents-feel-stress-of-raising-their-children/
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image courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/22964099@N05/2204059683/sizes/l/in/photostream/
