This Overwhelmed Mom Says These "Slap In The Face" Parenting Reminders Help Center Her
When you feel like you might lose your sh*t...
Everyone knows the golden rule, right? That’s the one thing I try to center in my parenting journey. When I yell at my daughter, I usually feel immediate regret because I think to myself, “Would I want to be yelled at?” Of course not! Would I want my phone ripped out of my hands in the middle of a TikTok? Nope!
When I make the mistake of doing that to my own kid, I feel the need to repair it. It’s easy to lose our true intentions in parenting when we’re touched out, exhausted, and overwhelmed by our kids. So, reminders like this can help us center ourselves.
One mom, Chrissy Horton, has a note in her app filled with helpful “slap in the face” reminders like this when she’s feeling at the end of her rope.
The list is as follows:
- It's just a Tuesday to you, but it's their childhood.
- How can I expect my child to regulate their emotions if I can't regulate my own?
- I may be overwhelmed, but how I react to them in the moment is teaching them how to react.
- Snapping at my child because I feel touched out may result in them not fully understanding why I'm frustrated and can make them think when they show affection, I get frustrated.
- When mad, just look at their little hands.
- How would I want to be treated in this situation? Would I want to be left to cry alone? Would I expect myself to self-soothe without anything, just alone with my own thoughts?
- If I was in the middle of working on something on my laptop and my husband came over, shut it down and said, ‘Time for dinner,’ how would that make me feel?
- Remember our babies are new to the world and they're learning everything and they deserve to be treated with the same kindness and respect we want to be treated with.
Several TikTok users who viewed Horton’s video commented with their own thoughts on her parenting reminders, sharing some of their own mantras.
“‘She’s not giving me a hard time. She’s having a hard time’ always brings me back,” one user said.
A dad said, “from a dad who struggles with reactivity, I needed this today. thanks for slapping me...a bunch 😂”
Another said, “I told my 3 yo son that he needed to calm down. Not good words, I know. Through tears he said ‘I don’t know how to’ and those words will crush me until the day I leave this earth.”
“Pls I think about this daily and I’m ridden with guilt and extra stress by my own inability to self regulate better 😭😭,” another said.
One mom noted, “The touched out one so much cause I’m 8mo pregnant with my 4th and all of the kids just wanna crawl all over me 😅😅😅”
The OP replied, “I know it’s so hard! I tell myself that it’s during this time in their life where a hug for me can solve all their problems because one day it won’t 😭❤️”
