Stress: Mummy's Heading For A Burnout

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All too often, too many mums are putting their family’s needs ahead of their own, trying to be a supermum only to finally burnout.

Following our article Slow down or else, many of the mums in our community have been sharing their stories on burnout and telling us how stressed they feel and how they are struggling to cope with the work/family/life balance. The end result is that our body suffers, our enjoyment suffers and ultimately we end up unhappy or in a situation where our health has deteriorated.

Here are 7 signs that you are heading for a burnout.

Your Exhausted: Constantly feeling run down and worn out. Unfortunately I think every mum with young children will be nodding in agreement to this. The late nights, middle of the night feeds or nightmares do interrupt your sleeping pattern and affect how you feel. Running around organising childcare, work schedules or afterschool activities is a lot of work and takes a lot of effort, all which mean that you are constantly pushing yourself and your body, leaving you feeling drained and tired.
Your quality of work/attention is dropping. This can be seen through silly errors, forgetting key things or perhaps not quite functioning as normal.
You’re not looking after yourself. Many mums can attribute to this. You are running late and while you ensure your children are feed, there is no time for you. You grab something on the go or don’t eat when you should. Not resting or sleeping properly further contributes to this issue.
You’re disengaged. As everything else becomes too much and all consuming, you find yourself letting social or work commitments drop and begin to feel disinterested at work. This is your body’s way of trying to switch off.
You can’t concentrate. Lack of concentration, attention and memory all suggest that you are taking on too much and need to slow down.
Feeling Guilty. Motherhood is a vicious circle of guilt and all too often mums feel guilty that they are not spending enough time with their children, or they feel guilty that they cannot complete their work activities in the required time. This means that you never feel satisfied and never quite ‘shut off’ leading to a circle of working more to do what needs to be done for work, feeling guilty about the decreased family time or spending more time with family and feeling guilty about not finishing the work projects. Both scenarios mean you relax less and stress more.
You’re moody. Not sure why your crying or suddenly snapped at the kids? If you are high one minute and low the next, it can mean that you are emotionally exhausted and cannot control your moods. This can cause arguments or situations which lead to you feeling guiltier and so on and so on.