02/02/2025
🛑 Stop silencing or invalidating parents when they say something isn’t right.
When a parent says they’re struggling, or they feel desperate for relief, or they’re having a hard time being pregnant/having a baby — resist the urge to say anything at all.
✅ Start listening.
✨Realize when a parent discloses this:
• This is their red flag. This is their call for help.
• It doesn’t mean they’re being pessimistic or lazy.
• Nobody woke up and said, “When I’m a parent some day, I want to be depressed and anxious!” They didn’t choose this. Being happy isn’t always just a CHOICE.
• Many already feel tremendous guilt for the way they feel.
• They are often already beating themselves up and worried about if they’re going to “ruin their child” or not be good enough.
✨Instead, try:
• Listening. Without the intent to respond. Put yourself in their shoes.
• Validating - “This sounds like it’s really hard for you. I am so sorry you are going through this.”
• Ask them if they just need someone to listen, or if they’d like help.
• If they want help, offer ways to help — take the older children out of the house once a month, babysit for free once a week so mom can workout, pay for a postpartum doula to help.
• If they’re open, connect them to resources like free support groups, helping them find a postpartum therapist, have them take the free EPDS mental health screen for parents, etc.
We can do better. We can be better, kinder, more compassionate. Let’s make a pact to end mental health stigma, specifically in parents, and understand that we are all just trying and doing our best.
👉What is something someone said or did that HELPED you? How did you feel seen or validated?
Share, like, and save this post so more people can see this. Let’s start changing the narrative together.