Manage Your Child’s Stress

Source Magazine:  Responsible Parenting 

In today’s world, even the kids do prone to stress. The reasons could be any – education, competition, achieving more in less time, parental expectations, or could be child’s limitations of doing certain things. Whatever the reason is but the end result is stress, anxiety, overwhelmness which may lead to low self-esteem and even depression.

As a parent, you can’t protect your kid from stress but by applying certain techniques you can help them in developing healthy way to cope from daily stress and solve their everyday problems.

Parents do perform certain roles or behave differently in various situations in their daily life thinking that their child will remain out of stress, but somehow they lack in doing it correctly. Here are a few tips which can be applied by parents in order to manage the stress of their children effectively:

Listen empathetically

If your child gets upset from some reasons, try to ask your child to tell you what’s wrong and how your child is feeling. Listen patiently and calmly, don’t judge, comment, lecture or blame. Put all your other work aside and be with your child. Listening effectively and patiently make half the work done. Sometimes only listening to the child leads them to melt down.

Talk together and decide

Talk to your child about the problem he/she is facing. Don’t say it’s silly; as the problem you are looking might appear small to you but for him, it might change his world. Comment briefly as “it seemed very unfair to you.” Or “I understand how you are feeling after this incident.” By doing this, it shows that you understand his/her feelings and you care for him/her. Then talk with your child and find the possible solution for the problem.

Building a trust relationship

Build trust with your child whatever your child is sharing, don’t pass it to other person without his/her consent. It makes the bond stronger between you and your child.

Over-scheduling to reschedule

“Does your child get enough time to play and relax?” In today’s time, we generally want our child to be a multi-talented person; school is not enough for him/her. We send him/her to dance, music, art, and other extra-curricular activities. After these activities we want our child to perform even good in studies also. But “where is the downtime for him?” Like us, kids also need some time to relax, enjoy and play. So it’s better to know if your child is over-scheduled. If yes, then reschedule his/her time table and give some time for him/her to rejuvenate.

Be a good role model

After all, parents are the first teachers of the child. When the parents are stressed, the kids feel the stress as well. You should look for your timetable and schedule as well. “Are you always in a hurry?” “Do you generally skip meals or take meals in the car?” “Are you having a good nap in the night?” “Are you always worried about some or the other things?” Look out for your symptoms of stress and try to make your stress come down first. Always have a positive approach because children are watching you and learning from you.

Make some time available to enjoy, relax and play

On at-least weekends, try to give some time to your child in outdoor and indoor games like cricket, football, carom, chess etc. in which all the family members should participate. It will increase the bonding in the relationship and children will know how to play and be relaxed.

Make your child comfortable in dealing with mistakes

Most of the times a child feel stress from the fear of doing mistakes. Make your child understand that no one is perfect and it is not essential that every person knows everything or do things perfectly. Help them to understand how to take decisions, choosing good options out of the bad ones, correcting themselves from their own mistakes.

Have a realistic attitude

Mostly parents think their child should be perfect in everything. They keep their expectation high of how things should be done. Remember, there are no perfect children and no perfect parents. All children can misbehave some or the other time. Every child is unique. Accept them as they are and develop a good self-esteem and confidence in them.

Teach your child relaxation

First of all, it is important to tell your children that relaxation could be fun. Do relaxation exercises with your kids, the most effective and well known technique is breathing exercise. Whenever your child is in stress or worry, make him/her sit comfortably on the bed. Put some relaxation/soothing music on, ask him/her to take a deep breath by counting 0-5, then stop the breathing from 0-3 and exhale your breath slowly. Do this for 10 times at-least.

Easy and be patient

As a parent, it is very difficult to see your child sitting upset or stressed. You can’t resolve each and every problem of your child but try to help your child slowly and calmly. Teach him/her healthy coping strategies and about optimism. Tell about lives up’s and down’s and prepare your child to manage their stresses for future.