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Cooking with a small child in your arms: 70 percent of parents sometimes feel burned out

Photo: Jan Woitas/picture alliance/dpa

According to a study by a health insurance company, mothers and fathers feel increasingly under pressure.

Stress factors are not just parenting and care.

The stress factors also include political conflicts and worries about finances.

This emerges from a representative Forsa survey commissioned by the Kaufmännische Krankenkasse (KKH), one of the largest insurance companies with 1.6 million insured people.

In the survey, 62 percent of parents with underage children often or even very often say they are stressed.

Two thirds also say that stress has increased in the past one to two years.

Almost 70 percent feel exhausted or burned out as a result of high levels of stress; in 2019 the proportion was significantly lower at 55 percent.

Around 40 percent have been depressed or depressed in stressful situations (five years ago: 22 percent).

»The big increase is a warning signal.

We have to take this development very seriously," said Aileen Könitz, KKH expert on psychiatric issues.

Constant stress can lead to chronic exhaustion, depression and anxiety disorders.

Political situation, climate change and inflation

Social issues such as the political situation, climate change and inflation were cited as stress factors.

Half of the parents find this particularly serious.

Other points include raising and caring for children (48 percent), the workload in the household (46 percent) and fear for the future of the offspring (44 percent).

Their own training or job (37 percent) and conflicts in the family (36 percent) follow somewhat behind.

Almost a third of parents are burdened by financial worries (29 percent).

Digitalization, including technical innovations and constant accessibility (17 percent), is less important in the respondents' self-assessment.

According to the survey, workload in the household in particular is a more common cause of stress than it was five years ago.

Almost two thirds of mothers now feel under pressure as a result.

In 2019 it was around 40 percent.

For fathers, the rate is still significantly lower, but has risen rapidly, from 16 to 30 percent.

In addition, more fathers feel burdened by raising children, conflicts in the family and financial worries than five years ago.

Single parents are particularly challenged; in nine out of ten cases the children live with their mother.

“Women suffer more often than men from stress-related mental illnesses such as adjustment disorders and, as a result, depression,” explained Könitz.

They are not mentally unstable, but are often more stressed.

»Think less perfectionistically«

To prevent burnout and mental illnesses such as depression from occurring in the first place, parents should question their needs early on and give them enough importance.

Anyone who has burned out can no longer give their family anything, says Könitz: “Burnout prevention starts with yourself.”

Before those affected seek professional help, it can help to examine their own network and consider who can provide support and when.

Tasks such as cooking or taking and picking up children from school could be shared with other parents, neighbors or grandparents.

“It’s also important to lower your own expectations and think less perfectionistically,” advises the expert.

On behalf of the KKH, the opinion research institute Forsa conducted a representative survey of 1,000 parents of children under 18 across the country.

The survey took place in January 2024, the comparative data was collected in November 2019.

Parents with multiple children were asked about the child whose last birthday was.

mamk/dpa