😡Do You Have Mom Rage 😡

Picture this: It’s somewhere around 3 a.m. and you just laid down to go to sleep when your tiny, barely 2-week-old newborn started crying.

You know you’re too tired to go get your child a bottle, and your partner promised to help. So, you wake your partner up and ask them to feed the baby. But instead of getting up, they just mutter, “5 more minutes,” and roll back over.

How would you feel?

Well, if you’re a mom experiencing “mom rage,” you’d probably be livid. And you might not be able to hide your anger much better than a toddler can when you tell them they can’t have more candy, even if you are generally a calm person.

Cue the cabinet slamming, yelling, or stomping around the room as you let your partner know just how upset you are.

Because that’s the thing about mom rage: It’s a kind of seething — but also surprising — rage that can feel very difficult to control. And it can be set off by the smallest of things.

Mom rage is a phenomenon in which moms experience intense anger that is unexplained, intense, and often very disruptive to their daily life.

When mom rage strikes, you may say or do things that feel out of character with the person and parent who you are or want to be. Outbursts of mom rage can be directed at your child or partner, or at no one in particular.

Every little thing feels not-so-little and everything is a trigger. It often takes moms by surprise because their once cool, calm, and collected personality seems to have disappeared.

Mom rage is often not an anger problem, but an anxiety problem.

Mom rage may also signal gaps in support systems, including from:

• partners

• family and loved ones

• society as a whole

In a world where we don’t always live near family or have additional supports, coupled with trying to balance work, childcare, and self-care, parenting can be altogether overwhelming.

Mom rage — and the accompanying guilt that frequently follows it — can be managed with the right approach.

Treatment options for dealing with mom rage often include a combination of:

• counseling

• learning coping skills

• self care

• medication, in some cases

Talking to a doctor or counselor is a great first step to coping with mom rage, especially if it’s impacting your kids, family, or quality of life.