Brain-based parenting

“What’s for lunch?, what’s for dinner?, where should we go on holiday?, where do we send the kids to school, how many clubs should they do? ….”

Is anyone else exhausted from making constant decisions? Making decisions takes effort, add to that, not knowing if you are making the right decision, and you are bound to get worn out. The brain loves patterns and habits, because it allows it to make decisions without too much effort and lets us ride along on autopilot.

When you have to make a decision, but you aren’t sure what they outcome will be, your brain needs extra information to help you make the decision, and that information takes time and effort. In order to make a decision, we have to weigh up lots of things, is it worth the effort, is the reward big enough, or is the loss too big to risk, how sure am I that I will get the end result? The less information you have, the more effort this takes. Let’s say you want to buy a new TV this Black Friday….

You look at the discounts on TVs - now you have to decide if it is a good saving, what if you don’t buy now and lose the discount, which TV is the best model, what is HD, 8K QLED? What do reviews say? The reward of a new TV has to be pretty good to expend all that extra effort.

Now think about the bigger and more potentially life-changing decisions you need to make around your children…

Too noisy?

One of the problems most parents face is that they are bombarded with information from every direction. At the same time, they are raising their children, exhausting in itself. Now every decision carries the additional weight of not knowing what the outcome will be. If I let them be on screens, will it fry their brains? How do I know if they are doing well at school, should I be helping with their homework? Buying specific toys? Listening to the mominfluencers?

Let’s put our minds at ease so that our brains can rest…

Next Friday, the 29th November at 1pm, I will be hosting a free webinar on Brain-based parenting so that I can give you all the basics and help you cut through all the parenting noise. You can register here: https://forms.gle/a8a7Z2As9VKLfdmb6 

I am also bringing together carefully curated evidence, experts and a supportive parenting community so that you can ease the mental load of uncertainty in parenting

What does it mean for my parenting?

🧠 Eliminate decision fatigue wherever possible. Routines and habits reduce the number of day to day decisions. But make sure they are healthy habits! Meals like breakfast and lunch can be set everyday - you can work with your children to decide what they want to eat in advance then stick to that all week (perhaps with a treat at the weekend).

🧠 Practice mindfulness. Much of our worries can be the result of not knowing what the future will hold. Unfortunately, we have no control over that. Even though we like to think our decisions now, will lead to some predefined path for our children, in reality there are many things that can completely change our (and their) trajectory in life. But we can focus on now, and the skills we need to maintain resilience against change and uncertainty.

🧠 Get good quality information. You know where to find it! 🙂