How is your stress level right now? How is your child’s stress level? We all experience stress at times, including children. Yes, it is true that children don’t have the same responsibilities as adults, but there are certainly areas of their lives that can cause them stress as well.
Sometimes, as adults, we are not as good about recognizing when the children in our life are experiencing stress. Some of the areas of life that cause adults stress (ex: relationship difficulties) also cause children stress, but there may be things that cause stress for our children that we as adults don’t even recognize as a stressor.
This is the first post in a series on the stressors that children face and how we can help them manage stress. I am always gathering suggestions for topics that you’d like to see me address. At the bottom of this post, you will find all the current posts related to this topic. If you have an additional topic you’d like me to address in this series, please feel free to leave a comment at the end of this post or email me at sarah@sarahleitschuhcounseling.com.
As we start to explore stress and children, I invite you to consider the following questions:
- What types of situations cause your children stress?
- How do you know when your individual child is feeling stressed?
- What are the ways that you can help your children learn how to manage stress in healthy ways?
How does stress manifest it’s self in children?
Each individual child shows their stress in different ways, but here are some examples of changes you may notice in a child who is feeling stressed:
- Increased levels of worry or sad feeling
- Changes in appetite
- Behavioral changes
- Sleep disturbance
- Irritability
- Changes in school performance
- Poor concentration
How do we help children manage stress?
While we may want to protect our children from all stressful situations, that is just not possible. It is important that we work with children to build a foundation of skills and support to manage stress in healthy ways. The future posts in this series will identify approaches and ideas that are unique to specific stressors, but this is a list of general ideas to get you started in helping your children manage their stress:
- Ensure that your child is eating well, getting adequate rest and has the opportunity for physical activity
- Make yourself available to listen to and support your child when they experience stress
- Help your children build skills to recognize and manage stress they may experience (This previous post on Self Care & Children may be helpful)
- Encourage your children to build support systems (family members, peers, community members) that they can turn to for support
- Ensure that children have time in their schedules for relaxation and fun
Let’s revisit the questions that I asked earlier:
- What types of situations cause your children stress?
- How do you know when your individual child is feeling stressed?
- What are the ways that you can help your children learn how to manage stress in healthy ways?
If you have any thoughts or experiences that you’d like to share based on the above questions, I’d love to hear them. Feel free to leave a comment below.
Check out the following posts currently available in the Stressors & Children Series:
Sarah
I offer a variety of workshops in the Eagan, Minnesota area that families may find helpful if they are exploring how support their children through stressful situations.