Parenting: How to help children manage stress.
From an earlier post, I have listed some of the common causes of stress in children.
Now that we have understood the triggering factors, how are we able to help our loved ones manage stresses?
Changes to routine:
1. First and foremost, STOP over scheduling, return the children their well deserved
downtime.
2. Make time for play, a playtime where there is no stress nor competition, but purely free
play where children can exercise their creativity and imaginations freely.
3. Ensure sufficient sleep time. Discipline needs to be enforced to ensure lights off and
children are ushered to bed routinely everyday to allow a healthy 9-10 hours of sleep.
4. Establish a consistent routine, this may also be applicable for adults as well. A
consistent routine will allow both child and parent know what to expect and allow ample
time to prepare for the day's activity, this inevitably reduces stress. When children has a
clear view of their consistent schedule, the awareness provides them security and
comfort.
5. Ensure a smooth morning head start, as a smooth routine morning will ensure the child
enjoyed a hearty breakfast and is well prepared for the day's school activities with
minimal rush.
Family environment:
6. Parents need to create a loving and supportive environment, as this will assure
children that their parents or caregiver are able to reassure and support them when
they are experiencing a difficult situation. Sometimes a listening ear, hug or a back pat
would be sufficient as comforting support.
7. Create an open communication environment to allow the child to air their frustrations,
as well as an avenue for the parent or caregiver to guide the child understand their
situation and work out a solution. A good approach would be adopting open ended
questions such as "How do you feel?", "What do you think?" . Most importantly, avoid
jumping in to offer opinions.
8. Parents need to ensure work stress baggage are offloaded before heading home, so
as to create a conducive relaxed home environment where everyone could chill out
and rest well. This would also avoid passing negative energy and emotions on to little
ones, as children are sensitive to parent's emotions.
9. Encourage or involve the child to participate in regular physical sports activity to create
a healthy body healthy mind. As exercises helps work out tensions as well as building
physical fitness and alertness to handle stresses.
10. Other than sports, parents should also encourage the child to pick up an activity of their
interest as an avenue for them to divert their mind off troubles for a while. This could be
any activities, such as crafts, music, reading or even just gaming.
Physical and emotional well being:
11. To manage stress, children need to first be aware of stresses and able to identify
symptoms. In other words, it is important for parents to teach their children to listen to
their body, and teach them to relate to signs of stress, such as sweaty palms,
uneasiness, stomach discomfort, diarrhea, fatigue, headache, loss of appetite,
frustrations, irritability, aggression and sleeplessness.
12. Upon understanding and identify the stress conditions, children need to also learn of
ways to release tensions, such as deep breathing, stretching, tensing and relaxing
muscles are good forms of tension reduction exercises.
13. As stress frequently arises from criticism and failures, building a sense of humor and a
positive perspective to failures would help the child deal with such challenges the right
mindset, thereby reducing stress. Role playing, positive self image and assuring they
are loved are some of the key factors and activities parents can adopt to help children.
14. Parents can also help children develop skills to identify problem and resolution skills.
This could be applied using open communication to guide the child to identify the
problem, and further list possible resolution strategies, and finally shortlist the most
effective resolution. As these exercises are repeated frequently, the child naturally picks
up such skill and apply to their daily challenges.
Now that we have covered the various aspects of stress management, I hope this could be helpful and build many happier childhood for our kids.
Parenting is definitely a learning and long journey! Nevertheless, Happy parenting!
Now that we have understood the triggering factors, how are we able to help our loved ones manage stresses?
Changes to routine:
1. First and foremost, STOP over scheduling, return the children their well deserved
downtime.
2. Make time for play, a playtime where there is no stress nor competition, but purely free
play where children can exercise their creativity and imaginations freely.
3. Ensure sufficient sleep time. Discipline needs to be enforced to ensure lights off and
children are ushered to bed routinely everyday to allow a healthy 9-10 hours of sleep.
4. Establish a consistent routine, this may also be applicable for adults as well. A
consistent routine will allow both child and parent know what to expect and allow ample
time to prepare for the day's activity, this inevitably reduces stress. When children has a
clear view of their consistent schedule, the awareness provides them security and
comfort.
5. Ensure a smooth morning head start, as a smooth routine morning will ensure the child
enjoyed a hearty breakfast and is well prepared for the day's school activities with
minimal rush.
Family environment:
6. Parents need to create a loving and supportive environment, as this will assure
children that their parents or caregiver are able to reassure and support them when
they are experiencing a difficult situation. Sometimes a listening ear, hug or a back pat
would be sufficient as comforting support.
7. Create an open communication environment to allow the child to air their frustrations,
as well as an avenue for the parent or caregiver to guide the child understand their
situation and work out a solution. A good approach would be adopting open ended
questions such as "How do you feel?", "What do you think?" . Most importantly, avoid
jumping in to offer opinions.
8. Parents need to ensure work stress baggage are offloaded before heading home, so
as to create a conducive relaxed home environment where everyone could chill out
and rest well. This would also avoid passing negative energy and emotions on to little
ones, as children are sensitive to parent's emotions.
9. Encourage or involve the child to participate in regular physical sports activity to create
a healthy body healthy mind. As exercises helps work out tensions as well as building
physical fitness and alertness to handle stresses.
10. Other than sports, parents should also encourage the child to pick up an activity of their
interest as an avenue for them to divert their mind off troubles for a while. This could be
any activities, such as crafts, music, reading or even just gaming.
Physical and emotional well being:
11. To manage stress, children need to first be aware of stresses and able to identify
symptoms. In other words, it is important for parents to teach their children to listen to
their body, and teach them to relate to signs of stress, such as sweaty palms,
uneasiness, stomach discomfort, diarrhea, fatigue, headache, loss of appetite,
frustrations, irritability, aggression and sleeplessness.
12. Upon understanding and identify the stress conditions, children need to also learn of
ways to release tensions, such as deep breathing, stretching, tensing and relaxing
muscles are good forms of tension reduction exercises.
13. As stress frequently arises from criticism and failures, building a sense of humor and a
positive perspective to failures would help the child deal with such challenges the right
mindset, thereby reducing stress. Role playing, positive self image and assuring they
are loved are some of the key factors and activities parents can adopt to help children.
14. Parents can also help children develop skills to identify problem and resolution skills.
This could be applied using open communication to guide the child to identify the
problem, and further list possible resolution strategies, and finally shortlist the most
effective resolution. As these exercises are repeated frequently, the child naturally picks
up such skill and apply to their daily challenges.
Now that we have covered the various aspects of stress management, I hope this could be helpful and build many happier childhood for our kids.
Parenting is definitely a learning and long journey! Nevertheless, Happy parenting!
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