Parenting Feeling Like an Impossible Job?
You are not alone, 68% of you feel like parenting is getting tougher, much tougher than our parents generation.
Why? Our kids are living in a world a bit different to the one we grew up in and it’s changing how young people think, feel, and cope.
There are a lot more saboteurs to the mental well-being of kids that are not entirely in our control.
So it can feel like our parenting job description is rapidly increasing as we play a game of whack-a-mole of new things to worry about every day.
And we are right to worry a bit, our research of 2000 parents showed that nearly half of kids are struggling with anxiety / low mood at least once a week, with 61% of parents now citing mental wellbeing as their top priority.
More results from our research below...
Our kids are getting less sunlight, less sleep, less movement, less time outside, and are getting less nourishing food. That paired with more screens, more social pressure, and more unsettling news headlines. And their brains just aren’t built for it.Because every one of those things has a direct effect on the body, on the chemicals and processes that regulate how we feel.For example, every phone ping, every notification, every intense gaming session triggers a hit of cortisol and noradrenaline — the stress and arousal hormones. Do that repeatedly across a day, and you've got a nervous system stuck in a state of chronic stress. That directly suppresses serotonin, dopamine, and GABA — the chemicals most linked to feeling calm, motivated, and happy.Natural light and time outdoors regulate the sleep-wake cycle — telling the brain when to produce melatonin at night and serotonin during the day. When kids spend more time indoors, that cycle breaks down. Sleep suffers. Mood follows.And all of that — the screens, the pressure, the poor sleep also drives inflammation and oxidative stress in the body, which disrupts those same neurotransmitters even further.
Chirpy’s mission is More Good Mood Days for young minds, food supplements and expert youth mental wellbeing advice to help you to help them - supporting the foundations of mental wellbeing that can be off kilter in modern life.
