Parenting in a Crumbling World (and 30 affirmations to help you through it)

It’s March Break, kids are out of school and on the loose, and parents, we’ve got you! Need a quiet, mindful minute of your own? Check out our new guest blog, “Parenting in a Crumbling World,” the latest edition in our parenting-centred blog series, authored by Ayako Gallagher, a mother, author, and long-time friend and collaborator of Greenpeace Canada. Take a little time to breathe and get some inspiration on the challenges of raising children in a world gone mad…we see you!

Let’s be honest: parenting right now can feel like holding your child with one arm while holding the weight of the world with the other.

Many of us are raising kids while navigating climate anxiety, political instability, rising fascism, economic stress, and systems that seem designed to keep us exhausted and disconnected. Add to that the emotional labor of parenting itself, and it’s no wonder so many parents feel overwhelmed.

And yet, we’re expected to do this quietly.

Gracefully.

Alone.

A big reason for that is structural. Colonialism and capitalism gradually shrank the idea of family down to the nuclear household. Extended kinship networks, collective caregiving and community responsibility were pushed aside in favor of productivity and individualism. The result is something a lot of parents feel whispering in their bones: This isn’t how raising children was meant to be.

If you’ve ever felt lonely, burnt out, or like you’re holding way too much, you’re not failing. You’re feeling the absence of the village the human spirit craves.

Grief Showing Up in Parenting

Parenting right now carries so many layers of grief and not all of it is personal.

Sure, I bet lots of us can relate to personal grief like mine; the loss of aging parents (my dad just died), supporting our neurodivergent children (my son is autistic), pregnancy loss (my baby Emi died in 2020) and our own physical and mental health struggles (Hello, late ADHD diagnosis, and chronic anxiety and depression). Or maybe you’re single parenting, co-parenting, grieving a divorce, surviving Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), sexual assault (SA) or domestic assault (DA), the list goes on.

But alongside these personal losses, there’s the grief of carrying the weight of systemic harm – even when it shouldn’t be ours to carry.

Grief shows up in the loneliness we feel like we’re the only ones in our community, friend group, or family speaking up against genocide or systemic oppression.

Grief shows up in the boundary setting when we realize we’d rather lose relationships instead of compromising our morals.

Grief shows up in the questions our kids ask about the world: the big questions about fairness, harm, and safety. And in us not always knowing how to answer them in ways that feel true and protective.

And grief shows up while we watch our children inherit a world that is often unjust and unsafe.

Parenting doesn’t happen in a vacuum, and grief doesn’t either. It lives in the intersections of personal, collective, and systemic harm and it reminds us of the work we have to do and the care we‘re going to need to keep going.

Affirmations Aren’t About Pretending Everything Is Fine

Okay, I know the word affirmations can make people roll their eyes a little. It can sound like toxic positivity; repeating nice things to yourself while ignoring reality. But when used differently, affirmations can actually be grounding. Hear me out.

Psychologists studying self-affirmation theory have found that reflecting on meaningful values can help regulate stress responses and strengthen resilience during difficult situations. In simple terms, affirmations can help our brains reconnect with what matters to us and broaden our capacity when things feel overwhelming.

They’re not about convincing yourself that everything is perfect. They’re about opening new neural pathways.

And if an affirmation doesn’t feel true yet, you don’t have to force it. You can soften it.

Instead of:

“I am strong.”

You can say:

“I am learning to trust my strength.”

Instead of:

“I feel supported.”

You can say:

“I am beginning to seek the support I deserve.”

Honestly, I wish someone had told me this earlier. When I first tried affirmations in my twenties, I read that you should look in the mirror and say “I love you” to yourself. It took me over three months before I could get through those three words without completely breaking down. I’d either start crying or feel so uncomfortable I’d stop halfway through.At the time, I thought the problem was me. Looking back, the problem was the approach. With my low self esteem, jumping straight to “I love myself” felt impossible, and me – a failure. If someone had told me I could start with something like “I’m learning to love myself,” it probably would have been a lot less traumatic.

Affirmations work best when they meet you where you actually are.

Parenting as Cycle-Breaking

A lot of parents today are doing something really profound, even if it doesn’t always feel that way day to day: they’re breaking cycles.

Cycles of silence.

Cycles of emotional suppression.

Cycles of authoritarian parenting rooted in control rather than connection.

Cycle-breaking often means grieving what we didn’t receive and then trying to give our children something different. It’s powerful work, but it can also be incredibly lonely when you don’t have community around you doing the same thing. Which is why reclaiming connection matters so much.

Reclaiming “The Village”

We may not be able to rebuild the full communal systems that were lost overnight, and that’s not the point. The point is we can begin reclaiming pieces of them and redefining what we want family and village to look like today. Sometimes that looks like finding a handful of parents who understand the same struggles. Sometimes it means creating spaces where grief, honesty, and systemic awareness are actually welcome.

Community doesn’t have to start big. Often it begins with a few people recognizing each other and saying: me too.

That’s the spirit behind the affirmations below. They’re meant to validate what many parents are feeling right now; loneliness, grief, exhaustion, while also reminding us of our power, our values, and the love guiding our choices.

Take what resonates. Leave what doesn’t. And remember you can always soften them with “I’m beginning to…” or “I’m learning to…”. Parenting in a crumbling world is hard. But it is also an act of devotion, imagination, and courage. And none of us were meant to do it alone.

Two Invitations

One, if this article resonated with you, I’m currently inviting parents to an upcoming cohort called:

Repairing the Break: Reclaiming the “Village” in a World of Disconnection

It’s a multi-week, virtual, safe space for parents navigating grief, systemic awareness and the loneliness that can come with raising children in a fractured world and for those who want to redefine and create community together.

Parenting in a crumbling world shouldn’t mean you have to do it alone.

You can join the waitlist here.

Two, do you want practical tools and scripts to help navigate hard conversations with your kids?

Well, I wrote, Raising Resilient Hearts: A Parent Guide for Conversations on Injustice and Global Issues:

100+ age-appropriate scripts
50 kid-friendly affirmations
25 reflective questions for parents
14 stand-alone sections so you can get what you need, when you need it

Grab your guide and start having conversations that matter, without the overwhelm.

30 Affirmations for Those Parenting in a Crumbling World

For the Cycle-Breakers

I am breaking cycles that oppressive systems have tried to normalize.
I resist the pressure to“do it all” or “fix everything.”
I raise my child to question the world, not fear it.
My presence, not perfection, is what my child needs.
My child is learning how to use their voice by watching me use mine.

For Your Loneliness

My loneliness is a symptom of colonial systems, not a personal failure.
It’s okay to grieve the support I never got.
Wanting a village is human, sacred and ancestral.
I am worthy of being held, supported, and surrounded.
I am allowed to reimagine what “family” means.

For Your Ancestral Power + Generational Cycle Breaking

My intuition is a form of inherited knowledge.
My ancestors dreamed of futures like the one I’m building.
My desire for support is not neediness; it’s instinctual.
I trust the wisdom in my body and lineage.
My body carries wisdom older than any parenting trend.
I can honour what came before me and still choose something new.
I am allowed to parent differently than I was parented.
My awareness alone is already changing things.
Ending harm does not mean I am rejecting my ancestors.
The work I’m doing right now will echo forward.

For Embracing Your Children

I refuse to shrink my child to make others comfortable.
I protect my child’s nervous system in a world that normalizes harm.
Raising a sensitive, creative child is a radical act.
I refuse to let my kid’s dreams be shaped by systems that profit from conformity.
I am planting seeds of liberation in my child’s heart.

For Your Grief

I grieve that the world is unsafe, and I help my kids recognize safety and boundaries.
It is not natural having to split ourselves into so many roles. My exhaustion is not weakness.
I am grieving the absence of the village my body knows should exist and I am reclaiming the meaning of family and community.
I grieve having to explain harm to my children and I teach them that harm can be named and resisted.
My grief is a catalyst for change, action and an expanded notion of love.

About the author

Ayako Gallagher (she/they) is a settler of Japanese + Irish descent, born on the unceded lands of the Musqueam and hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ language group nations, now colonially known as Richmond, BC.

Parent. Grief-guide. Author. Activist. Wannabe Potter.

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