As a therapist who works primarily with women, I hear about mom fears and mom guilt A LOT – but a common source of these often comes in the form of this question: “how do I keep my anxiety from affecting my kids?”

If you’re a mama and a worrier, this is the post for you. But even if you’re just one of those, stick around – I promise to make it worth your while!

First, let’s talk about WHY mamas tend to worry so much about how their own anxiety may affect their kids. We’ll start with the most obvious two reasons: we love our kids and anxiety sucks.

Most of the women who come into my office for help with anxiety, as well as many students in my Fear Less course are caregivers. By the very nature of how they spend most of their time, their main focus is on others, namely their spouses and kiddos. They also truly see motherhood as a huge gift and a huge responsibility. AKA, they’re super nervous they’re doing it wrong. Or they’re worried if they get enough things wrong, they’re going to ruin their kids. Sound familiar?

I can definitely relate, especially in my earliest years as a mama.

But now that I’ve been in the parenting game for over a decade (not to mention the foster parenting game!), I feel a lot more comfortable and at ease in my role as a mama. I’m not saying I do everything perfectly (or even close! ha!) all the time, or that I never have a mom fail, but I do feel confident enough to be able to share a few rules of thumb for not letting your anxiety trickle down to your kiddos. A few of them will probably surprise you! Let’s get started…