As a parent you know that you are going to experience times of joy, happiness, wonder, beauty, amazement and many other glorious things along the way as your child/children grow. All of those amazing things that our children do – learning to walk, talk, play, clap, laugh, sing – the list goes on and on…

At some point though you will also go through the ugly side of parenting… trying like mad to remember how wonderful you thought it was when your little angel learned how to walk and how to pick up a crayon for the first time while watching that angel toddle over to your walls and start coloring on them.

Remembering when you wanted nothing more than to hear them say their first words and now just wishing that they were mute again after listening to “Let it Go” for the millionth time today.

And when you thought it was so adorable that your little one learned how to bang on pots with the spoon but now wanting to break that spoon in half over your knee while you desperately search for the Advil in your medicine cabinet. 

We’ve all been there, and if you haven’t gotten there yet – just wait, it’s coming.

Now personally I have moved past the toddler years with my kids and have now moved into the teen age boy years with my twins. Now I want you to stop for a moment and realize the severity of what I just said. TWIN TEENAGE BOYS… double the hormones, double the fun… but not really. It’s not fun. It is a daily dive into stress and frustration.

And to top all of that off, both of my boys are special needs with traumatic brain injuries – which cause impulse control issues, anger management issues, delayed social skills, and executive function delays… which means that they are young men with the hormones of teenagers but with the developmental levels of 8 year olds. So you can imagine the fun times that we can occasionally have.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love my boys with every fiber of my being, and I wouldn’t trade who they are for anything in the world – but to say that I have a pretty high stress level would be an understatement.

As parents there is always going to be stress and worry – as single parents that stress and worry can double because we are doing it on our own. Some of us more so than others. Some will have the ex in their child’s life to help out whether it be financially or emotionally or just to take the kiddos off our hands so that we can have some down time. And if you do have a good relationship with your ex and they are helping with the kids then definitely be thankful because there are many of us who don’t have that support. I know that my ex is often times the cause of a lot of my stress. Dealing with him is like having another child in the house sometimes – some of you know what I mean and are totally nodding your heads with me right now.

Stress will build up on you over time and cause you to break down, both physically and emotionally so it is very important to make sure that you are doing what you can to help manage your stress in a healthy way and de-stress as often as you can. I know that it can be hard to find ways to do this as a single parent because it seems like our worries and stress just never really go away – BUT it is so important to try and find a way. Because if you break down physically and/or emotionally then you are no good to your kids and you are not doing yourself any favors either.

Today’s podcast is all about STRESS and how important it is to find ways, even little ways, to manage it and de-stress – it’s better for you and better for your kiddos!