From our experience providing healthcare services for families, we encounter many working moms who are dealing with enormous stress, which can impact their physical and mental health. After all, being a mom is a full-time job; how do you also manage a professional career with only so many hours in the day? If you’re a working mom, check out these nine stress management tips that might help you feel better in the midst of difficult schedules.

1. Eat Healthy
2. Exercise
3. Make Time for Yourself
4. Help Your Kids Entertain Themselves
5. Say No
6. Get Assistance
7. Don’t Be a Perfectionist
8. Practice Gratitude
9. Consider Therapy

These tips could help you feel better, manage stress, relieve anxiety, and maximize your time at work and home. 

1. Eat Healthy

A healthy diet is essential for maintaining energy. Strive to eat your recommended daily allowance of fruit, and vegetables and stay hydrated. Hydration and healthy food will give you more energy to handle your busy workload. 

We know that it can be tough to find the time to eat healthy when you’re on the go. Check out these adult Lunchables from The Balanced Nutritionist for easy, healthy lunch ideas that you AND your kids can enjoy. 

2. Exercise

Exercise is a great way to relieve your brain fog and give you more energy. Plus, it releases dopamine, improving your mood and making you happier. But when you have such a busy schedule, when can you find time to exercise? 

You don’t need to exercise every single day, and you don’t need to exercise for a very long time, either. Just 20 minutes of exercise, two, three, or four days per week, can go a long way! 

If you’re looking for some ideas, try a brief yoga session each morning; you can find free guided sessions on YouTube and various mindfulness apps. If yoga isn’t your thing, many moms make time to go on a walk during their lunch break or immediately after work, making it a short extension of the work day.  

Remember that steps add up! If it’s not feasible to block off more exercise time, try things like parking further away from the office or taking the stairs to get more steps in while you keep your schedule. 

3. Make Time for Yourself

We understand that it might feel like your time is always going to someone else, whether it be at work or at home. It sounds easier said than done, but making even a little time for yourself is one of the most important stress management tips for working moms. So, how do you find time with everything else going on? 

At least once per week, you should set aside a block of time dedicated to yourself, maybe on one of your off days or when your kids are preoccupied. Maybe it’s listening to your favorite podcast during your daily commute or having a cup of tea and reading a book for a little while after your kids go to bed. 

Having these short periods of time to do whatever you feel like at that given moment, or to do nothing at all, can help reset your mind and your body for whatever the next day will bring.

4. Help Your Kids Entertain Themselves

What activities do your children enjoy? Depending on their ages, they can entertain themselves with the right hobbies. With coloring sets, games, outdoor toys, or even their favorite show and healthy snack, getting your kids into a routine of independent play time without depending on screens could help you get time back to handle what you need at home or take an extra moment for yourself. 

5. Say No

Listen, we know, as well as anyone else, that mom guilt is real. Just try your best to remember that you’re already a superhero for being a mom! You don’t have to go the extra mile every time.

It does not make you a bad mom to say “no” when necessary. Your needs matter, too. If you need to turn down plans or not take on an extra project at work to keep a healthy balance, that is perfectly ok.

6. Get Assistance

On a similar note, don’t feel like you have to be in this alone! Asking for help is a simple stress management tip that working moms often neglect. You can get a little help with your kids and household tasks by:

• Splitting tasks between you and your spouse
• Using a daycare center or local after-school program
• Hiring a weekly or monthly housecleaner
• Setting up a carpooling schedule with other moms so you don’t have to get them to/from school every day

A little help can go a long way in managing stress. 

7. Don’t Be a Perfectionist

We know you want to be the best mom and employee that you can be. There’s nothing wrong with being highly motivated, but it’s important to remember that perfectionism can harm your psyche. 

In the social media era we live in, it’s easy to see moms online who are seemingly doing it all. But remember, you are only seeing a highlight reel. Don’t hold yourself to unrealistic expectations! Just do your best, and know that working moms everywhere are figuring it out just like you are. 

8. Practice Gratitude

Practicing gratitude is one of the best stress management tips because it changes perspective.

This practice does not mean downplaying your hardships or any of the stressful things that you have to deal with in your life. But it can help you remember all of the good things in your life that balance them. It can also help you determine which things are actually worth worrying about. 

9. Consider Therapy

A therapist can give you helpful stress management tips and tools to deal with stressors or hardships in your life. Therapy also gives you an opportunity to vent to someone, which is better than bottling up your emotions—which will inevitably explode, sometimes at work or at the dinner table.

Keep Tabs on Your Health

It’s impossible to live a life that’s completely free of stress, but by improving how you manage your stress, you can be a happier person and a more effective mom and working professional.