The Challenges Faced by Parents in the Modern World of Parenting
“I could just let go.”
Rosanna Breaux cast the intrusive thought from her mind and tightened her grip on the steering wheel.
Glancing in the mirror at her newborn twins in the backseat, she reminded herself that the thoughts weren’t hers—they belonged to the postpartum depression.
As a clinical psychologist, she had known all the symptoms and warning signs and the possibility that she could be affected. She knew all the healthy coping mechanisms, too.
That didn’t make the experience any less distressing.
“I just was empathizing so much with the people who experience this and don’t know what it is or feel like something’s wrong with them for having those thoughts,” Breaux told The Epoch Times.
And the number of parents struggling with mental health challenges may surprise some.
Experts say both new and traditional pressures are contributing to parents’ stress load, from age-old worries about finances and “mom brain,” to navigating new technologies and a growing youth mental health crisis.
A Mental Health Crisis
A recent advisory issued by Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warned that rising rates of youth mental illness could be negatively affecting parents’ mental health.
Citing a Pew Research report, Murthy noted that three in four parents say they are either extremely or somewhat worried that their child will struggle with anxiety or depression.
Breaux, who leads Virginia Tech’s Child Study Center, said recent studies do give cause for alarm.
“We have a mental health crisis that has been going on. The pandemic just exacerbated that,” she said.
The CDC reports that in 2021, 42 percent of students reported feeling persistently sad or hopeless, 22 percent seriously considered suicide, and 10 percent attempted to end their lives.
Additionally, the Health Resources and Services Administration reports that nearly one in five children in the U.S. has a special health care need, including chronic physical, developmental, behavioral, or emotional conditions that require specialty health services.
In Murthy’s recent advisory, he pointed out that 41 percent of parents with children under 18 report feeling so stressed on most days that they can’t function, compared to 20 percent of other adults, according to an American Psychological Association survey.
Those concerning statistics make it vital that parents pay attention to their own mental health, Breaux said.
“I always talk about the oxygen mask. You need to make sure you have yours on and you’re in a place that you’re not going to be reactive when you’re interacting with your child. And that’s hard to do sometimes—especially if you’re a single parent or the primary parent and have these other things going on,” she said.
It can also be difficult for a parent who is dealing with their own mental health condition. But Breaux noted that few resources and programs exist for the specific purpose of helping parents with their own mental health concerns in addition to their child’s.
“Oftentimes there are families that have parents struggling with the same thing as their kids, be it anxiety, be it depression, be it ADHD [attention deficit hyperactivity disorder],” she said. “In order for them to support their children with these things, they need to build these skills themselves.”
The key, Breaux said, is learning to practice emotion regulation—that is, finding a healthy way to cope with overwhelming thoughts and feelings.
“Are you going for a walk or doing exercise? Are you utilizing social support? Are you using mindfulness?” she said. “For me, getting even a five minute hot shower was … a way to at least have some private space and time and sort of thinking through what is going to refill your cup.”
Having some private space and time is a healthy way to cope with overwhelming thoughts and emotions, according to Breaux. Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Shifting Landscape
Finances have always been a worry for those looking to expand their household. But in the current economic climate, many parents are struggling even harder to make ends meet.
Prices are up more than 21 percent on average since 2020, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data show.
For parents, the soaring cost of child care has been especially crippling.
“I think there’s a child care crisis,” Washington-based clinical psychologist Amber Thornton told The Epoch Times.
- TSMC Founder Warns About End of Free Trade in Semiconductors
- MSNBC Criticized for Linking Trump Rally to Historical Nazi Event
