Parenthood is supposed to be full of joy — but for many, it’s also full of worry.

You love your children so fiercely that it hurts. You stay up late replaying every word you said that day, wondering if you handled something wrong. You overanalyze every decision, every milestone, every what-if. You want to be present, calm, and grateful — but your mind won’t stop running.

If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone.

In The Anxious Parent: Finding Peace When You Overthink Everything, author Jessica Schoettle offers a compassionate and honest look at what it means to raise children in a world that never stops demanding more. With wisdom drawn from her own experiences as both a mother and a lifelong overthinker, Jessica invites readers to step out of the chaos of perfectionism and into the gentle practice of peace.

Through heartfelt storytelling, grounded insights, and practical guidance, this book helps parents recognize that their anxiety isn’t a flaw — it’s often love that’s working too hard. Each chapter offers understanding, reflection, and simple tools for finding calm in everyday moments, including:

• How to recognize the difference between awareness and fear

• Ways to let go of control while still feeling secure

• The emotional cost of perfectionism — and how to trade it for presence

• How to model emotional regulation for your children

• Simple daily grounding practices for anxious minds

• Gentle ways to share the mental load with your partner, family, or faith

The Anxious Parent isn’t about silencing worry; it’s about learning to live peacefully beside it. It’s about transforming anxiety into awareness, and awareness into connection.

Jessica’s voice is both comforting and real — like a friend who sits beside you, not above you. She doesn’t promise a quick fix; instead, she offers a new way of seeing yourself: as a loving, capable parent who doesn’t need to have it all together to raise kind, resilient, emotionally healthy kids.