Strategies for Easing Parental Worry in High-Stress Scenarios
=================================================================================
As the summer break approaches, parents may find themselves facing the challenge of managing their children's increased activity levels while maintaining patience and emotional control. To help cope with this, practicing mindfulness techniques such as square breathing, mindful appreciation, and meditation can be incredibly beneficial.
Square Breathing
This mindfulness practice involves visualising a box and breathing in four equal phases: inhale for 4 seconds (up one side), hold for 4 seconds (across the top), exhale for 4 seconds (down the side), and hold for 4 seconds (across the bottom). Repeat multiple times, ensuring your belly expands on inhalation and contracts on exhalation. This calms and balances the nervous system, helping parents stay grounded and patient amid kids’ activity [1].
Mindful Appreciation
Deliberately noticing and appreciating small, positive moments throughout the day with your children is known as mindful appreciation. This practice shifts focus to gratitude and presence, reducing reactivity and enhancing patience [1].
Meditation Techniques
Short meditation techniques, such as 5-minute guided meditations focusing on one breath or one thing at a time, can develop calmness, focus, and emotional regulation. These can be integrated into routines like morning or before-demanding tasks to reset stress and enhance mindfulness [2][5].
By combining these practices during long summer days, parents can maintain emotional control, reduce stress, and model patience for their children [1][5]. Regular practice builds resilience to cope with the unique challenges of parenting during summer break.
Additional Helpful Tips
Encourage short mindfulness breaks throughout the day, even amidst busy schedules [5]. Use meditation and breathing apps or podcasts for guided sessions tailored to parents or kids [2][5]. Remain consistent but flexible, recognising some days will be more challenging than others, and self-compassion plays a key role [5].
These evidence-based mindfulness tools can make summer parenting more intentional and less reactive, fostering a calmer household environment. As one gets better at square breathing, the duration of inhalation and exhalation can be increased, as long as they are in equal proportions.
Originally published several years ago, this article was most recently updated on Aug. 4, 2025, by Kari Hanson, the website's associate editor, with new images and a fact-check. Meditation can be a useful tool for dealing with stress, and it can be done with guided meditations found online or via apps. Two popular apps for meditation are Positivity and Headspace. Research has linked gratitude with feeling more joy, optimism, and pleasure, and science has identified gratitude as a conduit for happiness and health. Parents and kids may have unrealistic expectations about enjoying every second of being at home together during summer break, and mindfulness tools can help cope with the challenges more gracefully.
- During the summer break, parents can manage their kids' heightened activity levels and maintain emotional control by practicing mindfulness techniques, such as square breathing, mindful appreciation, and meditation.
- Square breathing involves visualizing a box and breathing in four equal phases, calming and balancing the nervous system, which helps parents stay patient amid their children's increased activities.
- Mindful appreciation involves deliberately noticing and appreciating small, positive moments with children, shifting focus to gratitude and presence, reducing reactivity, and enhancing patience.
- Short meditation techniques, integrated into routines like morning or before-demanding tasks, can develop calmness, focus, and emotional regulation, helping parents cope more effectively with summer's unique parenting challenges.
- Encouraging short mindfulness breaks throughout the day, using meditation and breathing apps or podcasts, and practicing self-compassion are additional helpful tips for making summer parenting more intentional and less reactive.
- Research has linked gratitude with feeling more joy, optimism, and pleasure, and practicing mindfulness tools like those mentioned can help parents and children cope more gracefully with the potential challenges of enjoying each second together during summer break.
