Parents 'Overwhelmed' by Stress, Experts Say

The 63 million parents in the U.S. who have children younger than 18 are experiencing levels of stress "beyond anything we’ve ever experienced," parenting experts told Axios on Tuesday.

A poll conducted in March by the American Psychological Association and The Harris Poll found that Americans are most stressed by the rising cost of daily expenses, such as groceries and gas. The survey also found that most parents are concerned about their child's development, with many worried about how the COVID-19 pandemic will affect their cognitive and physical development.

"Living through historic threats like these often has a lasting, traumatic impact on generations," Arthur C. Evans Jr., APA's chief executive officer, said in a statement released with the poll. "As a society, it's important that we ensure access to evidence-based treatments and that we provide help to everyone who needs it. This means not only connecting those in distress with effective and efficient clinical care, but also mitigating risk for those more likely to experience challenges and engaging in prevention for those who are relatively healthy."

A previous poll found that more than half of American parents are worried that their children could be victims of a mass shooting like those recently seen in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas.

Gloria DeGaetano, an expert on parenting who founded the Parent Coaching Institute, told the news outlet that "there's almost not a word to express the stress parents are under right now. 'Overwhelmed' doesn't cut it. It's beyond anything we've ever experienced."

Kay Schrader, a family counselor based in Indianapolis, Indiana, told Axios that parents ought to know that "it is OK not to know everything, OK not to have all the answers, OK to say, I don't know but let's see if we can find someone who does."

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