Mindful Parenting During Lockdown

If you scroll through pages on Facebook, it looks as if lockdown has been one big bake off and regrouping exercise for most families. I haven’t seen anyone posting about issues they are having with home-schooling, lack of routine or kids generally feeling isolated from their peers, clubs or the wider-world.

As a mother of three, aged 12, 10 and 5, I’ve seen first-hand some of heartache and frustration that lockdown is causing. Yes, we have baked, painted and played, but we have also tears, anxiety and stress.  

So, in this blog I want to look at how we can manage some of the more day-to-day effects of lockdown with some Mindful Parenting practices. We all know that parenting is one of the most stressful, demanding and challenging job roles at the best of times. However, it is also one of the most rewarding and transformational experiences we can have.

With the additional stress, worry and time issues lockdown and COVID-19 has created, it’s very easy to simply respond to our children on autopilot rather than engaging with them in the present. 

When something goes wrong it’s easy to react first and give way to an automatic, and sometimes aggressive response. When we start to parent in a mindful way, we learn to allow the initial feelings to pass before we react.

I’m sure during in lockdown we are all guilty of saying a few harsh words to those we love. Especially as we may ourselves have experienced additional frustration, stress, disappointment or anger over the past year. However, when we use harsh words towards our children, we have the potential to impair their self-esteem and undermine their self-confidence. As our words have a significant impact on the way in which our child’s mind develops and grows it’s important to pay attention to our choice of words and use mindfulness to turn negative statements into positive ones.

The underlining philosophy of Mindful Parenting is accepting our child’s uniqueness and then to reassure them that we will always love them unconditionally.

Some Mindful Tips for Parenting

• Step outside yourself and view yourself as the parent
• Accept your child just as they are, for all their uniqueness
• Think about why you have expectations for your child, is it for them or for you?
• Be present and engaged when you’re in a stressful situation together
• Make sure you listen to them
• Think about apologising to your child if you did or said something harsh to them
• Keep up a strong communication with your child

My personal favourite – Enjoy every moment