Host: How can parents lower stress in their lives?

Dr. Diana Zuckerman: There are several different ways to lower stress. Obviously, trying to have things more predictable usually helps people a lot. It's the unpredictability that can drive people crazy. So, to the extent that you have a schedule written out of what's going to happen this week can be very helpful. Getting enough sleep can help you cope with stress much better. People are just much better able to deal with deadlines and unexpected happenings, when they have gotten enough sleep. Eating well, actually eating healthy foods also helps you cope with stress. So, there is a lot of ways that all of these things work together to help us be healthier and deal with the stress that's going to happen but there is also ways to lower stress by figuring out what's causing the stress. I mean, if your stress is caused for example, many parents will tell you that they are always late for everything. They are always trying to do too much and then they are always late for everything that means that they are stressed out, whether doing carpool or driving to place because they don't want to be late. They are going to pick up their child from daycare and if they are late, they are going to be or have some kind of fine or they are going to be yelled at or something. So, trying to organize your life so that you are not always rushing. So that you have enough time can really make a very big difference in lowering the stress and sometimes that means you just need to ask other people for help. One of the things, I think happens in a lot of families is one parent whether it's the mother or the father, one parent takes on all the problem issues and they don't ask somebody else for help. They just figure, okay, well, I have to do the carpool and I have to help with the homework and I have to make dinner and all that of bread and milk, so I have to rush to the store and sometimes they could just ask somebody else to it. Sometimes they could even pay somebody else to do it. So, there are things that could make our lives easier that sometimes we don't think about ahead of time and sometimes, we don't ask people for that help either.