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Self-Care for Resource Parents

 

Self-care is the golden key to obtaining personal wellness.  As a parent, I have seen how practicing self-care can really make a difference between surviving and thriving. Every stage of parenting has its unique challenges, but often resource parents experience additional stressors that naturally come with caring for children involved in child welfare. Whether it is helping a child prepare for a family visit, dealing with another delayed court date, or a long sleepless night, foster parents face additional stress that can leave them drained. Therefore practicing self-care is essential part of caregiving! Just as the image above states, “You can’t pour from an empty cup. Take care of yourself first.”

Retaining resource parents is a nationwide challenge, especially during this last year with all the hurdles of a pandemic. Because resource parents are by nature nurturing, often they try to ensure everyone else is taken care of and can easily end up with nothing left to give. We can all support the resource parents in our lives by checking in with them to make sure they are taking care of their own physical, mental, and spiritual health. We know that self-care looks different for everyone and that having a good support system is crucial to being able to make time for self-care. Utilizing respite care provides resource parents an opportunity to have a parenting break and spend time replenishing their cup. We all need to remember the importance of taking time for self-care because it enables us to be the best version of ourself. It’s a good reminder for all of us that we are modeling to the next generation the importance of taking care of our body- physically, mentally, and spiritually.

Will you make it a priority to ask resource parents how they are modeling self-care to the kids in their homes? The demand for resource parents continues to increase so it is of utmost importance to retain the current resource parents.  Let’s encourage the practice of self-care so that cups will not get empty but rather overflow into the next generation!

Limited on time? Check out these fun and quick ways to practice self-care from 5 to 30 minutes! Make time to fill your cup!

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