Countless appointments, grocery lists, household duties, bills, working, managing the mental health of their family, and the health of their relationships are just some of the things parents deal with every day. While in many families, both parents do help, much of the mental load is still traditionally carried by mothers, meaning the mental noise of problem-solving and planning rarely gets turned off.

And then Mother’s Day comes, which activist Anna Jarvis created in 1907 after the passing of her mother to celebrate how much mothers sacrificed for their children. You are meant to relax. Part of enjoying the holiday means shifting gears from the managerial role to the receiver, which can be difficult, especially when struggling with parental burnout.

Parental burnout is a chronic state of exhaustion that can impact executive functioning skills and the ability to focus over long periods of time (made worse by neurodiversity and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), medical issues, financial strain, or other preexisting mental health disorders). Burnout often occurs when there are excessive levels of stress while parenting or when the stress becomes chronic, which is common in parenting.

Signs of burnout can go unnoticed or ignored for long periods of time while focusing on the demands of others, aggravating preexisting mental health issues, increasing the potential for substance use, and intensifying chronic pain or other health issues. In fact, parental burnout is one of the potential risk factors for autoimmune issues........

© Psychology Today