Mental health tips - Parenting Video Transcripts
Video 1 Transcript
This is a really sensitive and tender topic. We've, um, haven't had a lot of experience in this other than, um, a little bit with our oldest son when he was going through some hard times in public school and, um, meeting expectations there. Um, my, my greatest advice is to really be a good listener with your children. Carve out time every day. A lot of time, not just a few minutes. Enough time to give our children time to share what's on their heart and to be listened and heard and whatever they share, hold in confidence so that they know they can come to us and it's safe anytime. I think parents that are so strung out and busy, children tend to bottle up their emotions and struggles inside and they, they don't come to us. They don't want to bother us. So it's important to carve out time for our children that we can listen and, and be there for them.
Video 2 Transcript
I think that if you feel like you're having a struggle mentally, if you're feeling anxious all the time or if you are panicking or just having a hard time being able to focus and do things and have a desire to do anything, that you should let yourself seek help. Like don't feel like it's bad, don't feel like it's too hard or you shouldn't have to do that. Like you need to be the strong one. Mental health is... the taking care of yourself part of mental health is so important and I definitely advocate being able to go and at least talk to somebody about the things that you're going through because it really really helps having someone to listen to you.
Video 3 Transcript
Don't be afraid to ask for help. Talk to family or your spouse or even your kids if you need help with something. Teach them that it's okay to ask for help and to give help when it's asked for.
Video 4 Transcript
Mental health and parents is extremely important. One of my best things is take some time for yourself. One of the things I like to do is take long baths and my husband will watch our two children while I do that and for him his is playing video games he loves to do that so we kind of both have our what we like to do to help our mental health and in my opinion you cannot have a healthy parenting dynamic if you're not healthy mentally. You have to be healthy and happy mentally to be able to take care of your kids so take time for yourself if that's going to get your nails done, if your husband likes to go fish, hunt, whatever, just you need to take time to do those things.
Video 5 Transcript
I think one tip for staying sane as a parent, especially of many children, because it's definitely harder when you have a lot of children, at least from my experience, is to not take things so seriously. Because if you do take things very seriously you might be driven crazy because kids tend to get into things and do things all day every day, especially when you have lots of children. So you have to kind of be okay with the and not get too agitated by it. In fact, I feel like one of the best ways to prepare mentally to be a parent is to just be used to having really loud sounds and lots of noise, lots of chaos, lots of people doing crazy things, and just learn to not react. To keep calm and cool. I think ultimately your children will probably follow your example.
Video 6 Transcript
One thing I wanted to say on mental health after having my daughter. I knew that I had depression and anxiety before I got pregnant with her. I unfortunately hadn't at that point gotten any sort of help or medication for it. And so I was just dealing with it as is and I was definitely struggling quite a bit. And so after getting pregnant with her, I had one doctor during the first half of my pregnancy and she didn't really seem like she listened to the mental health issues that I was having. And so the second doctor that I had for the second half of my pregnancy listened quite a bit more and he immediately was able to put me on some medication that helped not only my mental health at that current point, but my mental health after having my daughter. And I think it has helped so immensely just to have that.
Video 7 Transcript
When you have a new baby, try not to have everybody come visit all at once. It can get super overwhelming, so try and plan it out so you've got some support and some family visiting, but not everybody all at once where you're expected to take care of everybody and visit and entertain all of them.
Video 8 Transcript
Be patient with yourself. Just as your kids are learning so many different things, you're learning how to be a parent. You're not going to do everything perfectly every time. Don't expect yourself to.
