You may have heard some say parenting is one of the hardest things they have ever done.
Parents from the Trent University Research for Social Change Lab and Lakelands Public Health partnered to conduct a study focused on parents from the Peterborough, Ont., region.
The research study, titled In Their Own Words: Parenting Matters in Peterborough, found parents in Peterborough are “struggling to hang on” as they attempt to keep their families connected with one another and the community.
“Parents are working incredibly hard, and some parents were telling us that they just can’t work any harder,” said Dr. Mary Anne Martin, an associate researcher at the Research for Social Change Lab.
The data was collected from 560 online survey respondents and 57 parents who participated in art-based focus groups.
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The majority of participants were in their 30s and 40s and identified as women.
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“Parents were telling us in the artwork that they did that they felt like their heads were exploding, their heads were on fire, their feet were like cement,” said Martin.
Forty-six per cent of survey respondents said in the last two weeks they always or often felt stressed, and 51 per cent said they felt this way in the last six months.
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Sources of parental stress included high costs of living, a lack of social support, violence and safety concerns, as well as a lack of access to primary health care, childcare and children’s mental health and developmental services.
Parents new to the area also mentioned struggling with discrimination and adjusting to life in Canada.
Kate Dunford, a nurse at Lakelands Public Health, says there is a need in the community for greater parental support.
“A lot of the nurses at public health, we have our home visiting team, they are noticing a lot of really precarious families so lots of families in need of extra support in our community dealing with things like housing challenges, income challenges,” says Dunford.
On the positive side, 84 per cent of parents reported always or often feeling like they have someone in their lives who will get them through hard times.
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Respondents said things that make parenting easier include social connections, self-care opportunities as well as support from community organizations and programs.
Both Martin and Dunford hope the report results in meaningful community change to support parents.
“Everybody has a role to play, and that it’s not simply parents who carry the responsibility for our next generation, it’s all of us,” said Martin.
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