We genuinely believe that Twitter is full to the brim with awesome parents. However, it can be a bit challenging to grab everyone's attention when there's so much friendly competition going on. We were interested to get blogger Samantha's take on how to stand out on the platform.
"Twitter has been a tricky animal lately with all the changes, but in my experience, success with Twitter comes from relatable, real-life parenting observations that other people will be able to relate to," the founder of the Walking Outside in Slippers parenting blog shared with Bored Panda.
"If something ridiculous happens, tweet about it. If your kid says something funny that you can't believe they said, share that word for word on Twitter. And then, find similar content creators and retweet the heck out of them. Twitter is a very 'scratch my back and I'll scratch yours' place," she encouraged people to be active and engage with others on the social media site (emphasis on the 'social' part).
The Pew Research center recently found that the vast majority of Americans find parenting enjoyable and rewarding. There is a big ‘but’ here, however. A whopping 41% of US parents say that parenting is tiring. Meanwhile, 29% think that parenting is stressful “all or most of the time.”
More moms than dads feel this way, which could be a reflection of whom the burden of raising children still falls mostly to, even in this day and age.
Meanwhile, blogger Samantha had some awesome tips and tricks to share with us that could help new parents deal with stress if they're feeling entirely overwhelmed by this whole raising kids thing. Laughter and taking things a smidge less seriously, as it turns out, are wonderful antidotes for tension.
"I think stopping to laugh at the crazy parts of parenthood is a great stress reliever. Sure, being a parent can be overwhelming. But it can also be pretty hilarious," the parenting blogger told Bored Panda.
"Joke about it with other parents. Laugh with your kids. They're people too, if sometimes annoying miniature versions. Don't take everything so seriously all the time if you can help it. And keep your focus on the main goal: raising humans who care."
Things do improve as children grow, though. Parents who have children aged 5 or older are less likely to feel overwhelmed and stressed out.
Meanwhile, 43% of respondents said that they’re trying to raise their kids in a similar way as they were raised. However, an almost equal number (44%) noted that they’re doing things differently than their own parents.
One problem that quite a few parents run into is what to make their kids for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Bored Panda was curious about how Samantha's family approaches this challenge. She noted that a good idea is to not overcomplicate everything too much. Not every meal has to be an elaborate extravaganza worthy of a Michelin star.
"I recently discovered that my kids love breakfast smoothies. Smoothies are a quick and easy way to get nutrients into kids on the go," the founder of Walking Outside in Slippers shared.
"Other easy foods I've found are frozen waffles (made fresh and frozen from the weekend or the boxed kind), fruit, frozen breakfast sandwiches, cereal, and yogurt," Samantha said.
"Keep it easy, and use what works for your kids. Also, little surprises are great like the occasional mound of whipped cream on a waffle," she revealed to Bored Panda.
We don’t want to be too cheesy, but good parents are everyday superheroes. They might have bags underneath their eyes and carry around dirty diapers instead of wearing fancy capes, but they’re responsible for shaping their children into the generations of the future.
Much like teachers, they often don’t get enough praise even though what they’re doing every single day is literally molding the world of tomorrow. And even though the vast majority of the people using the internet will always be strangers to us, through social media, we can take a peek into their daily lives, and the fun struggles they deal with every day.
The reality is that being a grown-up means strictly prioritizing your time by what you value the most. Like it or not, you will not have the time and energy to do absolutely everything, exactly the way that you’d love to. It’s a perfectionist’s worst nightmare!
So being an adult and a parent becomes focused on learning how to balance your work, family life, personal hobbies, chores, and (that little but nonetheless important thing called) socializing with others.
If you focus on just your career, your spouse and children will miss you. If you identify yourself as a parent and only a parent, you might start feeling frustrated when all of your other passions in life are left to collect dust. It’s up to you to maintain that delicate balance between all the things you value, every single day.
But no matter how capable, optimistic, and energetic you are, every person has their limits. It’s natural. It’s human. You might get frustrated having to pick up your kids’ Legos, scattered all over the first floor of your house, twice a day. Or you might finally have had enough of washing a towering pile of dishes after cooking dinner, right after a long day at the office.
