Breaking Cycles Without Breaking Yourself.

There’s a quiet exhaustion that comes with trying to parent differently than you were parented. It’s not just the daily grind of meals, laundry, and bedtime routines; it’s the invisible weight of rewriting a script you didn’t choose.

Cycle-breaking sounds noble, but in practice, it can feel like a tug-of-war inside your chest. You catch yourself repeating a phrase you swore you’d never use. You hear your own frustration echoing the voices of the past. And suddenly, you’re not just tired from the day, you’re tired from the decades you’re trying to undo.

I’ve learned that breaking cycles doesn’t mean breaking myself in the process. It means pausing long enough to notice the old pattern, and then choosing one small shift. Sometimes that shift is therapy, where I can name the ache without shame. Sometimes it’s journaling, where I write down the words I wish I’d heard as a child. Sometimes it’s humor, laughing at the absurdity of how hard it is to parent with ghosts in the room.

The truth is, cycle-breaking isn’t about perfection. It’s about persistence. It’s about reminding myself that every gentle word I speak, every apology I make, every boundary I set is a brick in a new foundation.