What is self-care for parents and carers of young children?

Self-care is actively doing things to look after your:

• relationships
• physical health
• mental and emotional wellbeing.

What are examples of self-care for parents of young children?

• Doing something you enjoy like watching your favourite show, reading or listening to a book, or doing a craft
• Eating healthy food
• Doing physical activity
• Doing wellbeing activities that can boost your mood, like mindfulness
• Spending quality time with people you love, like your partner if you have one, family or friends

Why is self-care important for parents and carers?

Raising children is an important job, and self-care helps you do the job well. That’s because looking after yourself gives you the physical and mental energy you need to help your child grow and thrive.

When you’re focused on looking after babies or children, it’s easy to forget or run out of time to look after other parts of your life. But looking after yourself is worth it – it’s good for you and good for your child.

How to care for your relationship and why it’s important

For parents and carers with partners, self-care involves looking after your relationship.

Tips

• Listen to each other.
• Talking together about how you’re feeling.
• Accept and support each other.
• Find solutions to problems.

Why it’s important

Looking after your relationship can help you both:

• get the most out of being parents and partners
• cope with challenges like less sleep, less time to talk to each other, and less time alone with each other
• set realistic expectations, be understanding, and forgive each other when parenting is stressful.

This can often be the difference between staying together and drifting apart.

How to care for your physical health and why it’s important

Looking after your physical health is a big part of self-care.

You can look after your physical health by:

• staying active
• eating healthy food
• getting enough sleep and rest.

Physical activity tips

You can get and stay active in simple ways, like going out for a daily walk. Or you could jump around the house listening to your favourite music.

Being active:

• improves circulation
• increases your overall metabolism
• boosts your immune system
• makes you feel good.

Healthy food tips

Healthy food gives you energy. If you keep your pantry and fridge stocked with healthy foods, it’ll be much easier to have healthy meals and snacks.

Sleep and rest tips

You might be able to get more rest and improve your sleep by:

• aiming for a regular bedtime routine
• trying to go to bed early
• taking a short nap when you can, especially in the early months with your baby.

Why it’s important

Physical self-care can boost your energy levels and improve your ability to help your children grow and thrive.

You can get more tips to help you care for your physical health in our articles on healthy eating and exercise for parents and better sleep and more rest for parents.

How to care for your mental and emotional wellbeing and why it’s important

Self-care involves looking after your mental and emotional wellbeing.

Tips

• Make time to do things you enjoy.
• Make time for friendships and social connections.
• Be kind to yourself when things don’t go to plan.
• Use helpful thinking strategies to keep negative things in perspective and appreciate positive things.
• Try breathing, relaxation or mindfulness to relax and feel calm.
• Manage stress, manage anxiety and manage anger in healthy ways.

Why it’s important

These self-care strategies can help you feel emotionally and mentally well.

When you’re emotionally and mentally well, you’re better able to navigate the challenges that sometimes come with raising children and running a family, like:

• getting to school and work on time
• guiding your child towards positive behaviour
• managing financial issues, health concerns and relationship issues
• balancing work, family and household chores.

Managing stress, anxiety and anger is good for you and your child, but sometimes it’s challenging. It might help to remember that it’s OK to make mistakes, forgive yourself and try to do better next time.

Special note: postnatal anxiety and depression in new parents

It’s natural to experience emotional changes in the weeks and months after your baby is born. For example, you might sometimes feel anxious or worried while caring for your baby.

But if negative emotional changes are interfering with your health, your relationships, or your ability to manage daily life, it could be a sign of postnatal anxiety or depression or another mental health condition.

If this sounds like you, it’s important to seek professional help as soon as possible. Talking with your GP, your child and family health nurse or another health professional is a good place to start.

If you’re feeling frustrated, overwhelmed or very angry or you feel you might hurt your child, put your child in a safe place – for example, a cot or bed. Take some time out until you feel calmer, or ask someone else to look after your child for a while. It’s OK to ask for help. If you’re having trouble coping, call your local Parentline.

Where to get support for parenting self-care

Many services can help you as you navigate the challenges that come with raising children. You can also get free parenting advice in every state or territory of Australia by calling a parenting helpline.