What a (half) year of change and uncertainty!
Many of our kids have had to get used to a “new normal” while trying to digest complex issues affecting our communities.
Many have had months without physically seeing their friends and extended family. Then, to top it all off, they have been thrust into the homeschool of Mom and Dad!
One of the biggest challenges parents face is making sure that our kids move out of this current crisis as resilient, aware and well-rounded human-beings.
So, how do we do that?
One effective approach is to focus less on sheltering our kids from the world and more on strengthening their mental health and resilience so they are able to face anything that comes their way with a deep understanding of their self-worth and their community.
This requires parents to nurture kids so that they grow through the uncertainty. By supporting questions and open conversation while framing the issues through child-appropriate perspective, parents can help their kids keep calm and carry on (and upward).
“Talking to children in a clear, reasonable way about what’s going on is the best way to help them understand,” says Rachel Busman, PsyD, a clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute. “But remember kids don’t need to know every little thing.” Unless kids ask specifically, there’s no reason to volunteer information that might worry them”.
-Child Mind Institute
Resources to Help Both Parents & Kids
Here are two resources to help both parents and kids weather the storms and grow stronger each day.
- Supporting Kids During the Covid-19 Crisis: This article from the Child Mind Institute is a fantastic resource to support both parent and kids during the current pandemic. Here are tips from the Child Mind Institute’s clinicians to help calm fears, manage stress and keep the peace.
- Child-friendly News: Sometimes it’s hard to explain complex issues from a child’s perspective, especially when we are time limited or multi-tasking with work. Here is a fantastic list of child-friendly news resources with the child-appropriate tone and approach for kids to read and watch the news.
