Health and Wellbeing
Self-Care for Those Who Care
Caring for a child who's struggling leaves little over for you, and these small, realistic habits help you look after yourself without the guilt.
- 47 minutes
- 8 modules
- Certificate
Members
Parent membership: all 50 courses for parents and carers, £40 a year or £4 a month after 14 days free.
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What you'll learn
- Use paced breathing to calm yourself in a tense moment
- Write a "to don't" list and let go of standards you can't keep up
- Find safe people and places to offload your worries regularly
- Look at your own efforts the way a good friend would
- Make time for the parts of your life beyond caring
About this course
When you're caring for a child with mental health difficulties or additional needs, your own needs slide down the list until there's nothing left to give. Looking after yourself can feel selfish. But your child learns how to treat themselves partly by watching you, and it's much easier to be patient when you're not running on empty.
The ideas here fit into a busy day. There's a slow breathing pattern, in for four and out for eight, for the moment you feel your temper going. You'll write a "to don't" list of jobs and standards you can drop, and find people, in a support group or online, who understand what your days are like. When you're being hard on yourself, you'll learn to ask what a good friend would say.
There's time, too, to think about who you are outside caring, and the friends and interests that got pushed aside.
8 modules
Open in order
- 2 min
Introduction
- 6 min
Investing in yourself is investing in your child
- 9 min
Find ways to offload
- 6 min
What can you let go of?
- 9 min
What would a friend say?
- 8 min
Stop and breathe
- 9 min
Who are you?
- 2 min
Wrap up