Your child doesn’t need a happier parent - they just need you!

What if your child doesn’t need a calmer, happier, more perfect parent… but just you, a little more present?I think modern parents are carrying an impossible job description. We’re supposed to be emotionally available, mentally healthy, patient, connected, successful, screen-free and somehow deeply fulfilled while raising children in a world that often feels exhausting and overstimulating for all of us.And during Mental Health Week, I keep wondering if we’re aiming at the wrong thing. Because children don’t need perfection from us. They need us to be there.I think mental health is often built in much smaller moments than we realise:putting the phone down properly,sitting beside each other in silence,making toast at 10pm,taking a breath,coming back to ourselves and each other again and again.Not perfectly.Just repeatedly.Thank you for pausing with me. Take care. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kimmccabe.substack.com/subscribe