With the stress of the pandemic, some parents are struggling with compassion fatigue. Here are some symptoms, causes, and expert-backed advice on how to handle it.
After a grueling year of pandemic parenting, many parents are depleted from the never-ending roller coaster of anxiety. And now with the new school year, parents are also helping their kids readjust to in-person learning and trying to ease their fears about the Delta variant. On top of that, they're also trying to resume "normal" activities like taking kids to sports practice.
Amid this mountain of responsibility, parental stress is rising. A 2020 survey conducted by the American Psychological Association revealed that almost 50 percent of parents with kids under 18 were more stressed than before the pandemic began. In addition, 31 percent said they were struggling with mental health concerns. A separate study found that about 28 percent of mothers and 13 percent of fathers were experiencing pandemic-induced burnout.
Burnt out parents may feel tapped out and unable to tackle one more stressor, but some parents may also feel like their empathy tanks are running on fumes. This feeling, according to researchers, can be a sign of compassion fatigue, a health condition that has affected frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Of course, there is a difference between compassion fatigue in frontline workers and parents, but there are similarities in symptoms.
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