Living in the age of ‘continuous parenting’ is burning out parents

Each day, licensed clinical social worker Ofra Obejas has appointments with a number of parents—with the idea that this is a designated time for them to decompress, turn their attention inward and concentrate on the counseling session. Yet, Obejas says she has noticed a disappointing trend: Many clients don’t disconnect for that brief period.

“Parents have sat in therapy session with me and checked every time their phone alerted them, ‘In case that’s my kid calling me,'” she tells Motherly. “The smart device allows parents to never be away from the child.”

Unlike in generations past, today’s parents can be always “on” due to everything from high-tech baby monitors to a stream of pictures and updates sent to their phones. That’s what we at Motherly have termed “continuous parenting,” and the risk is it not only sets parents up for fatigue, but also sends children unhealthy messages about their own boundaries.

The answer isn’t to erase our kids from our minds every so often—because that simply isn’t possible. But we can benefit from making the effort to step back from actively “parenting” every now and then.

Parents spend more time than ever with their kids

According to a recent study from The Economist, American moms now spend twice as much time with their children compared with women 50 years ago. That works out to be an average of 125 minutes per day of devoted mom-child time. (Kudos to dads, too: Since 1965, they have tripled the time spent with their kids. It’s now up to an average of 59 minutes daily.)

Experts credit this to increasingly flexible work schedules and options to punch in from home. Likely also at play is the fact that the newest generation of moms and dads are embracing the duty like few before, with 99% of millennial parents reporting they truly love parenting.

We’re leaning into parenting—but are we overdoing it?

It’s one thing to identify first and foremost as a parent and take pride in that role. It’s another thing, however, to confuse our sense of worth with our children’s accomplishments, which is something former Stanford University dean of freshmen Julie Lythcott-Haims says was commonplace among the parents she encountered.

“When I ask parents why they participate in the overprotection, overdirection, hand-holding frenzy, they respond, ‘So my kid can be happy and successful,'” she writes in How to Raise an Adult. “When I ask them how it feels, they respond, ‘Way too stressful.'”

This constant investment in children’s lives can take a toll on the parent-child relationship when the parent doesn’t take time for him or herself, too. “The parents feel that they ‘sacrificed’ their own time for the benefit of the child, even though during much of that time there was no direct engagement with the child,” Obejas says of those hours spent shuttling kids around town or waiting outside the doctor’s office. “The parents’ own emotional and mental cup becomes empty, and when the child asks for more attention, the parents feel like they have already given enough.”

The expectation of constant contact ‘is draining for the brain’

Even outside the category of helicopter parents, the expectation that we should constantly know what our children are doing is problematic. “‘Always on alert’ didn’t start with children,” says Obejas. “It started with devices and apps designed to be addictive. It overtaxes our fight or flight response and leads to toxic stress when levels of cortisol and adrenaline don’t ever subside.”

Compared with the days when it was the norm for kids to roam free until the streetlights came on, it’s commonplace today for parents to expect regular updates of their kids’ exact whereabouts either by texts or GPS tracking tools.

“While this can be a safety backup, it increases the type of hypervigilance we know is draining for the brain,” says Urszula Klich, licensed clinical psychologist and president of the Southeast Biofeedback and Clinical Neuroscience Association. “[This] can also cause incredible anxiety as parents hear and read things they wouldn’t normally be subject to, that is, let’s face it, a normal part of kids growing up.”

Roles have reversed

Not so long ago, parents would go to the store or out on a date only with the faith that everything was fine at home. Now? That’s almost unthinkable—as we’ve instead shifted to the mentality that our children or their responsible caregivers should be able to contact us at any given moment. Despite the good intentions at play here, this comes at an expense.

“In what other job do you never get a break? It is truly exhausting to never get to turn off the parent brain,” says LMHC Jasmin Terrany, author of Extraordinary Mommy: A Loving Guide to Mastering Life’s Most Important Job.

Driving this is the trend toward maternal gatekeeping, which describes the subconscious desire to micromanage child care even when someone else is perfectly capable of holding down the fort. As uncomfortable as this may feel, it’s healthiest for everyone when parents can hand over the reigns on occasion.

“We must have regular practices to refuel,” Terrany tells Motherly. “We don’t need to feel guilty about taking this time for ourselves—our kids will not only learn that self-care is essential, but when we are good, they will be good.”

This is also how we let our children know another adult can attend to their needs, which is an important step in fostering their sense of independence and confidence. As Esther Perel, author of Mating in Captivity, previously told Motherly, “Let your partner actually figure it out on their own and know that the system survives even when you are not there.”

Being ‘always on’ can degrade quality time, too

Much of being “always on” is a two-way street: Not only do we bring our children into our work days and social lives, but we also bring other obligations home with us in the form of emails sent to our smartphones and mid-playtime breaks to check social media.

“Our children need us, the parents to be ‘there,'” says Tom Kersting, licensed psychotherapist and author of Disconnected: How To Reconnect Our Digitally Distracted Kids. “They need us to talk to them, play with them and be present with them. This is literally impossible if we are multitasking between the iPhone and our interactions with them.”

As expert as we may consider ourselves at multitasking, there is also something to be said for setting boundaries. “In today’s world it’s become difficult not to carry that phone around you all the time, even more so when your job is tied to it,” says Klich. “Set boundaries for yourself for when you will check, even if it’s once an hour, and stick to that making it clear to the kids what you are doing and why.”

And when we’re away from the kids, remember this hack: Calls from favorite contacts can still come through when you’re on do not disturb mode. So tell your partner or your babysitter or your kids to call if it’s a true emergency—and then allow yourself to go off the clock. You’ll be better for it.

[This post was first published June 25, 2018.]

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