10 Ways To Manage Overstimulation As An Overwhelmed Mom

Do you feel overwhelmed by the constant tantrums, screaming, toys everywhere, and someone seemingly always touching you? You’re certainly not alone! So many moms are confronted by overstimulation on a daily basis, and its genuinely a hard thing to manage for a lot of us. Motherhood is so beautiful, but it also comes with a lot of overwhelm, mess and constant demands. This article will give you 10 ways to manage overstimulation as an overwhelmed mom!

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What Is Overstimulation? What Causes it?

Overstimulation occurs when your sensory input from your environment around you reaches a threshold and leaves you in a state of fight or flight mode. The stress of managing a household, combined with the loud noises from toddlers and the mess that inevitably follows is a perfect recipe for overstimulation. Moms are more susceptible to this because we are by nature, more in tune with our children. This means we can’t tune-out the crying, whining, or loud screams even if we want to.

1. Take A Sensory Break

Step aside into a quiet room, step onto the back porch for some fresh air, or even just close your eyes for a couple minutes. Escaping the constant sensory input from toddlers is crucial for maintaining your own mental well being- and you shouldn’t feel guilty for this!

If you live in a small space and struggle to find a way to escape the noise, consider looking into some Loop Engage earplugs. They are built and designed with sensory relief in mind, and they are a wonderful option if you have nowhere else to go for a few minutes! They’re so small, your kids and family probably won’t even notice you’re wearing them!

2. Set Healthy Noise Boundaries With Your Children

Working on teaching your children how to use inside voices V.S. outside voices can make a world of difference for you if you’re feeling overwhelmed by all of the constant noise. Some kids just speak loudly, or play loudly, and its okay for you as mom to coach them on how to maintain a reasonable volume in the house. This is a crucial skill for school aged children anyway, so why not get a head start on things at home!

3. Reduce Visual Clutter Around The House

The toddler mess is unfortunately inevitable, none of our houses are going to look Pinterest-worthy for quite some time, but there are ways you can reduce the visual stimulation in your home so that the toddler messes feel less overwhelming. Create a bin system and make sure all of your little items laying around the house have a designated place to go. Also take note of things that just sit around but never actually get used, and consider donating or selling them!

4. Communicate Your Needs- Advocate For Yourself

When you begin to feel your mood shifting into that fight or flight response, pause and tell your children “mom needs some space.” It’s ok to teach your children that mom needs some personal space sometimes too, i promise this wont traumatize them. That personal space is crucial to preventing yourself from losing your cool, so trust me, this is for the best interest of everyone involved.

As a bonus, your kids will learn from this and start advocating for themselves too! My 3 year old picked up on this pretty quickly when i implemented it, and now he tells us “I need space” when he feels overwhelmed!

5. Use Grounding Techniques

I know, when you’re new to using them, it can feel kind of silly and meaningless. But trust me, these techniques truly do work and people wouldn’t talk about them so much if they didn’t! I like to use the 5-4-3-2-1 method, which is naming 5 things you see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you hear, 2 things you can smell, and one thing you can taste.

6. Limit Yourself On Multitasking

Trying to do 3 things at once while a toddler screams at you is less than relaxing! If your mind is already on overdrive trying to do several things at once, and then your toddler starts losing it, you are probably gonna feel like losing it too! Let’s work to limit yourself on your multitasking and save it for when it’s truly important to do so, if it can wait, let it wait!

7. Get Outside

A change in scenery combined with fresh air, vitamin D, and the birds singing is just what you need to snap yourself out of feeling overstimulated! I know when you’re feeling overwhelmed it can feel impossible to get the kids dressed and get outside with them, but it’s truly worth it and I promise everyone will feel much better once you’re out there!

8. Create A Calming Ritual

Make sure you have a favorite go-to activity for when you’re beginning to feel those feelings of overstimulation ramp up! something like drinking tea, smelling essential oils, lighting your favorite candle, or even stepping into a dark quiet room for a few minutes.

9. Plan For Some Alone Time

Nap time is my favorite time to set aside for myself. Some days I take a nap with the kids, other days I spend time working on my blog or even just mindlessly scrolling through social media. I truly don’t structure this time strictly, I just set it aside for whatever I want to do that day. After spending all day doing whatever everyone else wants to do, its important to have an hour or two for yourself and your hobbies.

10. Give Yourself Grace

Overstimulation in motherhood is so normal. We all experience it probably more than we’d like to admit. It’s not exactly the pretty side of motherhood but it is real and it happens. When it happens, now I hope you have the tools to handle it confidently.

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What has your experience been like with overstimulation? What kinds of things help you to stay regulated? Please leave your experiences below! I love reading what your thoughts are!