Parenting while having a chronic illness requires determination, strength and empathy for oneself. It also requires letting go of idealised concepts of how you wanted your family and parenting to be, you can find a few tips in our section about loss of self.
“Finding humor in everyday situations (as frustrating as they can sometimes be), understanding and addressing your children’s concerns about your illness, and making sure that you are taking care of your own personal well-being (as well as you care for others) are all crucial to finding that balance.”
Here are some tips that might help with managing and finding light through parenting.
- Finding balance – try to find balance between your chronic illness and parenting.
- Let things go – when you have almost reached your limit of “spoons” consider letting things go, don’t stress about cleaning up, packing up or even cooking. This might be the time when you turn to takeout or lean on a friend or family for help.
- Don’t sweat it – make efforts to try to find gratitude within small moments and try to let go of the difficult times.
- Learn to accept un-predictability.
- Join a support group – leaning on other women or other people with the same chronic conditions can be helpful as they can truly understand what you are going through.
- Seek help with trained professionals – it can help to talk to someone that can be objective.
- Learn to put your needs first – self-care is so important, try to take time for yourself.
Adapted from Kaleidoscope Fighting Lupus