Parental burnout: how to support parents

Parental burnout affects people for whom the hardships of parenting prove to be beyond individual capabilities (resources). Each parent has different resources: psychological, competence, cultural, physical, financial, housing, relational – both with a partner/partner and with a family that can support in different ways in raising a child. All these elements can translate into the timing and scale of parental burnout. 

At the same time, exhaustion affects mothers more often than fathers. This is related, among other things, to social pressures, especially the idealised images that dominate social media. 

As Prof. M. Mokolajczak comments: There is a lot of pressure on parents, but being a perfect parent is, after all, impossible. Such attempts can lead precisely to exhaustion. Our research shows that something that gives parents a chance to recharge their batteries is also good for children.  […] If you try too hard to do the right thing, you will eventually start doing the wrong thing. Excessive pressure on parents can lead to exhaustion, which can have a devastating effect on both the parent and the children.” [source]

Burnout is more common in people raised in individualistic cultures than in collective ones, and in members of nuclear versus multi-generational families.

It is more often faced by perfectionists (‘maladaptive perfectionism‘), neurotics and introverts, and generally people with weaker emotional competence (emotional intelligence). Burnout can be associated with both a loss of career vision and simply a poor financial situation. 

Child health problems, especially disability, are a particular factor.