At some point in your parenting journey you lost your joy. Here are some tips to become a joyful mom once again. With a shift in perspective and a little bit of care, you can reclaim the joy that motherhood used to give you!

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HOW TO BE A JOYFUL MOM

There’s no denying it, motherhood can be simultaneously uplifting and crushing. From the celebrating of milestones, to the rebellious child finding her way, to the days overflowing with mundane predictability, being a mom is an emotional Olympics.

Whether you’re days, weeks, months, or years into your parenting journey, at some point you may have lost your joy. Your melancholy could have been brought on by a sudden event or it could have been a slow drip of discontentment that has resulted in a flood of sadness.

Regardless of how you arrived at this emotional state, there is hope! With a shift in perspective and a little bit of care, you can reclaim the joy that motherhood used to give you!

Thankfulness

I’m thankful for my children and the gift of motherhood that they’ve given me. Yet at times it’s difficult to see the positive when you’re drowning in challenges.

Try keeping a thankful journal. Every day write something about your children, or your motherhood journey, that you’re thankful for. If we’re thankful on even the most challenging of days, it’s hard to stay discontent.

Joy comes when we’re thankful for what we have.

Connection

Life gets busy. I get it!

However, all relationships need some investment of time. Often when we’re lacking joy in motherhood it’s because we haven’t taken the time to savor it.

Set aside some time in your schedule and connect with your child. I’ve written numerous times about the importance of connecting regularly with our children. These three articles may help you plan some meaningful time with your children:

• 30 Delightful Ways to Connect with Your Child
• 5 Powerful Ways to Reconnect With Your Child
• How to Spend More Intentional Time with Your Children

Joy comes when we spend quality time with our children.

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Forgiveness

The motherhood journey is relentless. It sometimes feels like you’re required to give yourself 24/7. Then something happens….

• Your child gets in trouble at school.
• You let your frustration erupt from you and yell at your child.
• You were so busy, you barely spent any time with your child this week.

All of these situations are challenging, but to reclaim your joy you’ll need forgiveness.

Children make mistakes in order to learn. Your response to their errors provides a road map for how they handle future challenges. Whether their error was big or small, YOU have the responsibility to lovingly teach them where they went wrong and extend forgiveness to them.

Similarly, parents are only human. The forgiveness that you extend to your children also needs to be granted to yourself. Don’t beat yourself up over the mistakes you’ve made! Make note of your error, ask for forgiveness (if the situation warrants it), then forgive yourself and move on.

If you’re struggling with forgiveness, take your cause to God. Seek out forgiveness in prayer and scripture.

Joy comes when we’re free from judgement and resentment.  

Self-care

Motherhood is exhausting. The daily demands of caring for your children’s social, physical, intellectual, creative, emotional, and spiritual needs, easily gets magnified by the task of juggling their varying personalities.

In addition, you may be managing work demands, multiple schedules, and housework! Balance may seem like an impossibility, so you resort to forfeiting time for yourself.

While it may at the time seem like a compromise, it’s not. It’s a sacrifice.

You need to take care of yourself too! Your body, mind, and spirit need nourishing just as much as your child’s.

Daily set aside some time to take care of yourself. If you think you don’t have enough time, I assure you, it’s not true! Visit this article, How to Make Time for Yourself. This article has various self-care ideas that take anywhere from 5 minutes to 60+ minutes. Yes, it’s true… self-care can take as little as 5 minutes a day!

Joy comes when we’re taking care of our needs too.  

The Get Reflective Parenting Journal

Reflection

Time is an odd thing while we’re on this parenting journey. Motherhood can simultaneously feel like a second and a lifetime. When one day blurs into the next, we sometimes forget the joys and milestones that motherhood gifts us along the way.

My Becoming a Deliberate Mom Parenting Workbook dedicates a whole module to self-reflection… it’s that important!

The practice of reflective parenting helps you contemplate your journey and also serves as a way to improve your parenting practices. When we reflect on our progress and accomplishments, we are reminded of the kind of mothers we long to be.

Joy comes when we reflect on where we were and how far we’ve come.  

Your motherhood journey may seem like the longest, toughest adventure. At times, you may feel alone, but you’re not! Many moms go through a period when they lose their joy in motherhood. I’m certain that with these few simple strategies, you can reclaim the joy you once had, and enjoy your parenting journey again!

Jennifer Bly

Author of My Kitchen, My Classroom: An Introduction to Homeschool and creator of The Deliberate Mom. Jennifer writes about parenting, homeschooling, her faith, and life with her husband and two girls. Jennifer has a Bachelor of Applied Human Service Administration Degree with a specialization in Early Learning in Child Care.