Burnout in ECE: Caring for Ourselves as Caregivers

Photo by Toa Heftiba

In an article for The Canadian Child Care Federation, Reena Kukreja writes about the burnout she experienced during the pandemic and how the lessons she learned through her own recovery have benefited her practice as an Early Childhood Educator.

Kukreja describes an incident in which a child in her class was having difficulty tying her shoelaces. She threw the shoes and declared, “I’m bad at this!”. Instead of responding by immediately correcting the behaviour, by kneeling down beside the child and saying, “It looks like this is really hard for you, but you’re learning. Let’s try together,” the child was able to reconnect with the task and find success, leading to a big celebration of the achievement. The author notes, “ ‘You’re learning’ reframes a struggle as a process, not a failure. This subtle shift teaches resilience, a skill children carry far beyond the classroom.”

During the pandemic, Kukreja found herself depleted, running on autopilot. She says, “I realized I couldn’t pour into others when my own cup was empty. This led me to prioritise self-care - quiet early mornings, long meditations, writing for reflection, and nature walks. Through this process, I rediscovered why I chose this profession: to empower children, not just academically but emotionally and socially….I began advocating for self-care not as an indulgence, but as a necessity in our field.”

The author encourages Early Childhood Educators to apply the learning skills and emotional awareness we are teaching to the children in our care to our own experience. Allowing ourselves opportunities to self-calm and reframe gives us, like the children, the space to move forward and strengthen our own skills, in order to be better able to transfer our knowledge and experience to others.

The College of Early Childhood Educators (CECE) offer two direct and practical videos, produced in 2022 as the world was coming out of the intensity of the pandemic period by psychiatrist Dr. Jean Clinton and continuing to be relevant, addressing the realities of ECE workplace stress management and using a trauma-informed lens to learn how to better manage one’s own personal triggers.

Self-Care at Work, with Dr. Jean Clinton: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7J8Rq-FMR8

The Brain at Work, with Dr. Jean Clinton: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6R9El3ftvY