7 Ways to Minimize Mom Stress and Maximize Your Patience 

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There are so many women and mothers who are dealing with stress, exhaustion, and burnout and it’s time to fix that. Let’s talk about some practical ways that we can minimize mom stress and maximize patience in order to improve our overall lives, health, and well-being. 

1. Wake Up Early and Have a Plan

I want to share with you some practical tips that are going to help you with minimizing mom stress because stress is completely unhealthy and it’s not good for the body. And it actually causes a lot of health issues that we can mitigate if only we could minimize the mom stress. 

This is so important, but a lot of people end up neglecting this step, it can be life-changing if you stick to it and commit to it. 

Having a plan is really important because it allows you to really guide your day and also eliminate those things that tend to pop up that really don’t need to be there and tend to cause stress.

The reason I say wake up early is that it allows you to really get ahead of the day, especially while everyone else is sleeping. You can be up and getting things done when you start really early. That way a lot of those important tasks are already taken care of. 

So, when those random things do tend to pop up, you know, those things that you can’t plan for, then it eliminates stress automatically because you know the important things are already done for the day.

Your Morning Routine

Make sure you have a really good morning routine because it can literally change your life with this. I recommend using this time to be quiet, have some quiet time, and spend time praying, reading your Bible, and even reading a book.

You can also utilize this time to get any major tasks done. If you work full-time, your morning routine may be short and simple. You may simply want to use that as a time to enjoy the peace and relax before the day begins.

This is where using a really good planner comes into play. I love planners. I advocate for planners. So much so that I actually created a 2024  planner. You can purchase my printable planner here.

This is a dated planner with checklists for cleaning and meal planning. It has all of the calendars and weekly planning, extra goal-setting sheets, and a vision board that will help you be successful and stay on track for 2024.

Plan out your entire week and include everything that you need to prioritize and make sure you get it down on the planner and you stick with the plan.

2. Establish a Routine

The second thing you can do to minimize mom stress and maximize your patience is to establish a routine. Everyone can benefit from having good habits and routines, but this is especially important if you’re a mom of toddlers.

Establishing routines and having a schedule for them is going to be very beneficial for you and your family. Remember that repetition is good.

Think about what you want the day to look like, and then teach your child to follow the same schedule each day. 

Consistency is key. Create a schedule for your children to follow and stick to that schedule. When you do this correctly, they will begin to expect the same order of events each day, no matter how young they are. This provides stability for them and helps minimize unwanted behaviors. 

Your child should know what to expect each day. This eliminates a lot of tantrums crying and fussing since they already know what’s happening next. If an unavoidable change to the routine has to happen, be sure to communicate this to your child in advance and ensure they understand that things will be different.

3. Prioritize Your Self-Care 

Take time to prioritize pouring into yourself because it is very difficult to pour from an empty cup and serve others when you’re burnt out, exhausted, and worn down. 

This is one of the reasons why I highly advocate making sure that you have a morning routine with quiet time. It’s one way that you can get some self-care time in while the rest of the house is quiet and sleeping.

Spend time doing the things that you need to do for yourself so that you can start your day with a full cup and be ready to serve those in your life. So, prioritize self-care either in the morning or evening. 

If you are a mom, then I highly, highly recommend having a routine in place because you can get to a point where you’ve trained your children to not interfere with it.

Teach your children what time bedtime is. Have them go through the same bedtime routine every night. Make sure they’ve gone to the bathroom and had water or milk before bed. Teach them to stay in their room all night unless they need to use the bathroom or there is an emergency.  

Tip for Moms of Toddlers & Young Children

For toddlers, try using a Hatch Rest Sound Machine, Night Light, Sleep Trainer

to sleep train. This is something that we use and love at my house. It’s a sound machine, night light, and more, and has different colors and music that you can use to sleeptrain your child.

In our morning time, my daughter knows when the same song and green light come from her Hatch Rest Sound Machine, Night Light, Sleep Trainer, that’s when she can leave her room to say good morning to the family.

Keep everything the same each day. Now, of course, you can move things around as needed. Things happen. Not every day is exactly the same, but overall it should be the same routine every day.

When you do this, you know that you’ll have time for yourself. So if your kids are all in bed by 7:30 pm, then you know that you have from 7:30 pm until you’re ready to go to sleep as your time. If you train your children and establish solid routines then that will usually be uninterrupted time because your children know they need to stay in their rooms unless they have to use the bathroom. 

Reduce the amount of nightmares in your home so that your children don’t wake up with fear in the middle of the night. I explained how to do this in a previous podcast and a blog so that you can protect your child from the spirit of fear.

Establish those routines, train, and teach your kids the expectations so that you can have your self-care time. Then, you will be ready to serve and your cup will be full enough to pour out into the lives of those that you love. 

4. Keep Your Children Busy and Train Them

The fourth way to minimize mom stress and increase your patience is to keep your children busy and train them. 

You can keep your child busy with various different activities and tasks to complete around the house. Teach your children to do little chores and help with small tasks. You can even teach them how to be independent so they can do certain things on their own,

If you have toddlers, you know they are usually always asking for a snack. You can teach your child to open the fridge or open a bottom cabinet where you keep their snacks. Teach them when it’s okay to get the snacks. Teach them the expectations, and show them how to do it. Allow them to practice multiple times to help minimize some of your stress because you don’t always have to get up and go do it yourself.

Children are more capable than we sometimes give them credit for, so teach the things that are important within your home and the way that your family functions. Keep them busy with various different books and activities. Lovevery is a company that I love! They have a lot of Montessori-inspired products that are developmentally appropriate for toddlers.

We enjoy using their products, they keep my daughter busy with fun learning.  It’s typically when a child is unoccupied and bored that they tend to test your patience the most, so make sure you have a plan and a routine. It doesn’t have to be complicated but it should be consistent.

5. Control Your Thoughts

Another way to minimize mom stress and maximize patience is to control your thoughts. You’d be surprised how much this simple thing can make a difference.

Proverbs 23:7 says, For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. 

This means whatever you’re thinking about guides the direction in which your life and mood are going to go. Make sure that you’re controlling your thoughts.

You know, Philippians 4:8 tells us to think about the things that are lovely and pure and good. If you find yourself constantly focusing on negative things or the things that are getting on your nerves, you will run out of patience faster.

If you have a heart of gratitude, remain optimistic, and think about the positive things that you’re thankful for, you will minimize that lack of patience that you might be dealing with.

Remember the Big Picture

I want to take a moment to remind you to think of the bigger picture. God has gifted you with your children and it is your responsibility to steward them well. We will stand before God and give an account of how we raised our children, respected our husbands, and kept our homes. This is the assignment God has given us.

 that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. Titus 2:4-5

Keep eternity in mind. You have the honor of training soldiers for the kingdom of God. The Lord has entrusted you with your children. Make Him proud.

6. Use Your Faith to Minimize Mom Stress

The sixth thing you can do to minimize mom stress is to lean into your faith. Remember that the Holy Spirit will help you. He is your helper and comforter. You don’t have to do things in and of your own strength. 

Philippians 4:13 says, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

Rely on His strength. You don’t have to do it all on your own. When you’re having a moment where you’re feeling overwhelmed, pause, take a deep breath, pray, and ask the Lord to help you through it. Surrender and trust that God will help you and work everything out for you.

When you feel low on patience, you can even ask God for patience in that situation. If you feel that it is dwindling, pause and ask the Lord to help you through the situation. Another thing that makes a big difference is to stay full of the word of God. Read your Bible daily and think about it throughout the day.

When you are experiencing stressful moments or when you feel like your patience is low, pull that word out of your heart and speak it out of your mouth. Speak God’s word.

Lean into your faith and trust God in all situations. Even the little situations that you don’t think He cares about. He cares because He loves you. Rely on Him as much as you need to. 

7. Simply Your Life

The last thing I want to share with you is to simplify your life. Think about the things that you have on your plate, on your schedule and all of your responsibilities. Consider which things are cluttering your life and making it more difficult and stressful, and start planning ways to simplify it and make it better.

Remove or change the things that are causing you undue stress, exhaustion, and overwhelm. Make some adjustments depending on what is causing you stress. If you have a full schedule with lots of commitments, think about what you can reduce and remove to lighten your load.

If your children are not behaving the way that you would like them to, then teach them, train them, and show them how you would like them to behave. Set clear expectations and boundaries and don’t be afraid to discipline. Wherever the issue is in your life, work on simplifying things to reduce stress that you may be experiencing.

The stress is an indication that something needs to be adjusted. So, simplify as much as you can. Even if you can’t make changes at this very moment, you can start preparing and thinking of ways that you can get to that point where you can simplify your life.