How to be a happier, healthier and more joyful parent in 2021

Let's forget the guilt and focus on the moments of delight with our children

Picture: iStock 

2020 was a year that most parents would prefer to forget. Even in the best of circumstances, it was tough. Thankfully, the prospect of a Covid vaccine offers hope. So rather than feeling guilty for not being the parent that we’d like to have been in 2020, let’s think about how we can be happy, healthier, and more joyful parents in 2021.

For Sheila O’Malley, who runs in-house wellness programmes for family, personal, and workplace wellbeing, it is crucial to recognise that we cannot be the perfect parent, the perfect partner, the perfect employee, the perfect friend. “That is beyond all of us. We put ourselves under too much pressure,” she says.