This week marks Children's Mental Health Week, an awareness week organised by mental health charity Place2be. The theme is Express Yourself, which is such a great theme and easy to explore at home with your own children. Supporting our children to express themselves involves both implementing parenting strategies and developing an awareness around why it's an important area of emotional health. Emotional Expression is key to emotional health and yet traditionally, children's voices have been quietened when it comes to showing their feelings. Generational patterns have created adults who feel discomfort when confronted with an overwhelmed child, though things are changing rapidly in the modern parenting world. Many of us are more aware of the importance of emotional health and are trying to break those old patterns. But, it's tough. Even though we KNOW emotional expression is important, holding space for it can be HARD! The crucial thing here is to know why it's important, which will support empathy and how to approach it in a balanced way which works for parent as well as child. When we allow our children to express themselves emotionally, we support their brains to process emotions, make sense of them and prevent them becoming "stuck" in their feelings. Unprocessed feelings can become suppressed and rear themselves throughout our lives when we are triggered. Ironically, it's those unprocessed and unexpressed feelings from our own childhood (because they were suppressed by parenting approaches) that are triggered by our own children's big emotions and can cause the cycle to repeat. So, how can we work on making the changes to allow emotional expression? Well, first of all it takes a parenting mindset shift. All feelings are OK. Secondly, it needs a realistic expectation of how emotional expression should look in your household. The younger the child, the more understanding and support they will need around their ability to regulate themselves when expressing their emotions. It also means being kind to yourself; you're human and it won't always be easy to hold space for the big feelings of a dysregulated child! Finally, it takes regular role modelling of emotional expression and implementing activities into your family life that encourage children to creatively express themselves, releasing feelings and promoting communication with you. Here's a few ideas for ways you can encourage your child to express themselves. You can download this prompt sheet for free! Just click on the image. It's important to recognise that holding space for emotional expression does not mean condoning unacceptable behaviours. Over time you can guide your child to express themselves in healthy ways. These phrases will encourage your child to open up and talk about how they feel:
We've got some great resources for young children that will encourage them to express themselves and open up conversations about how they feel in our shop. Click here to see our range!
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Home schooling our kids during a pandemic. Yeh, that.
Schooling our children at home when it’s not our lifestyle choice is a huge challenge for everyone involved. Teachers, parents and children are all trying to wade through the treacle and find an imperfect way to make this work. We are basically trying to squeeze a square peg through a round hole. Parents aren’t home schooling in the true spirit of home education, because the values that underpin that are entirely different from mainstream education. Parents are effectively a link between teachers and their children, facilitating what the children would be normally be provided with in person. We are basically the hook trying to hold on to the progress our children would be making if the situation was normal. There are a few key issues that makes this pandemic home schooling situation precarious for families (and I’m not saying it shouldn’t be happening at all, we’ve got a medical system and lives to protect, but just acknowledging the challenge) and why so many parents are finding it overwhelming:
So, what’s the solution? Well, I honestly don’t think there is one. The saving grace is that this is temporary. The positive to take is that we are all doing our best. There are some things though that can help relieve this pressure cooker situation.
What if the fear of your child lacking self-esteem is leading you to a response that tries to make your child feel OK by telling them they’ve done well, rather than guiding them to discover and believe that themselves? A response that helps you feel better in the moment but doesn’t build foundations of resilience for your child.
It’s easily done. And it ‘feels’ like the right response in the moment. But what if I told you that you didn’t always have to panic respond with a, “but that’s brilliant, darling” when your child clearly doesn’t think it is? How would that feel? Liberating? We need to accept as mothers, that there will be times our children lack confidence in themselves and that our job is to teach them resilience skills and guide them, not fix it for them. To do this we need to free ourselves from using our children’s emotional ups and downs as a measure of how good a job we are doing. A good mother and a child with emotional struggles are not mutually exclusive. When we instinctively react to smooth the moment over, we're actually reacting to soothe ourselves under the illusion we're helping our children. Like a mama bear in protect mode, hearing negative words that sound destructive and damaging coming from the mouth of someone we love more than life itself, feels like facing our worst nightmares. It hurts. Taking a moment to read the situation is a skill, but one we can all learn. And those moments of pause can reduce our parenting anxiety and support our child at the same time. Let me tell you what I mean ... Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. No doubt about it! I love the festive spirit and having taught in Primary Schools for many years, I can categorically say that the magic of Christmas never grows old. BUT ... I've noticed that over the last decade (since I had Miss Scribbler), parents are squeezing in more and more through December to maximise the Christmas 'experience'. To be honest, I wonder how much of it is for us as parents as it is for our children? Was Christmas any less magical for us when we were children? There was no elf that visited, no afternoon teas with Santa and no phone calls and videos from him either, and yet Christmas was full of magic and wonder. In fact, I think we are in danger of reducing the magic in our attempts to make Santa tangible. Perhaps there is more magic when he's left in our children's imagination?
Since becoming a mother myself, I've noticed that although I love Christmas there comes pressure. On reflection though, it's self imposed and unnecessary. The expectation I set myself to make Christmas magical for my children is almost always going to lead to disappointment, guilt or self criticism. Let's take the darn elf as an example. It all started well and was fun, but by the second year of our elf's arrival the novelty had worn off for us but not for Miss Scribbler! There have been many a night where the elf was lazy and stayed put or didn't get up to anything wild. The stress of panic story telling to counter the disappointment on our daughter's face! Every year I dream up ways we can be done with elf's visits. There's other self inflicted pressures too. The perfect table spread on Christmas Day, the co ordinated tree decorating to match this years interior design trend, the hunt for the best toy of the year, the urge to give that goes beyond generosity and into excess. These are the 5 myths of a magical Christmas:
It's easy to get caught up in the frenzy of the festive season, but it's important to remember that the quiet moments are memorable. The magic lies in the atmosphere you create, the time spent together and in the imagination. Christmas. What feeling springs to mind for you as a mother when you hear the word Christmas? Excitement. Overwhelm. Somewhere in between? Do you thrive amongst the tinsel and fake snow, or do you struggle with the pressure of making it magical for your children? Now, Christmas 2020 feels like a whole new ball game. The big overall challenge is not knowing what it will look like. We’re waiting on the Governments of the UK to come together and set out a common approach for us all. But we can be fairly sure our children aren’t going to experience the same heights of delirium caused by numerous Christmas Parties, Discos, Afternoon Teas, Breakfasts with Santa or visits to Santa’s Grotto. Perhaps you’re feeling a little heavy hearted at the loss or compromised versions of these landmark childhood moments, especially when there are only a few precious years to soak them up. Perhaps the events of 2020 mean that on a financial level, there’s compromises to make. It pulls at the heart strings when your child writes to Santa asking for something Santa can’t afford to bring. I was thinking about how my kids will experience Christmas this year and to begin with, it got me feeling a tad melancholy. I’ve got a ten-year-old who has reached her first year of non-believing, but a 4-year-old who has just come of age when it comes to magical Christmases. A Covid Christmas was feeling like a really subdued one. But it absolutely doesn’t need to be. It’s a chance to create a Christmas we love. Although many mums love Christmas, it's the joy on their children's faces that makes the stress worthwhile. For mums, there's much rushing, shopping, planning, decorating and experience creating leading up to the big day. When something comes around but once a year, there's a real pressure to make it memorable for our children. But, we can really get caught up believing that some things really matter, when they don't. Perhaps the festive season of 2020 is the chance to reassess what really makes Christmas special. These are the things that I realised when pondering how this year might look: More time focused on family and quality time together, less time faffing with table displays to impress Great Aunt Jane. More mums spending time with their children on Christmas day, rather than their cooker. More time focused on what Christmas really means to you as a family. Less rushing and ticking off ‘must do experiences’ that usually leave you feeling stressed out and the children on a huge sugar crash. I mean, the irony of the effort to provide these experiences that usually result in parents threatening Santa’s naughty list! More intentional shopping. Buying things loved ones want or need, rather than the rush to fill the present bag at the last minute. Less materialism. Less plastic. I genuinely believe Christmas 2020 is a chance to reset the festive season for the better. It’s the opportunity to create memories that will really mean something to our children. Just as the first lockdown of 2020 gifted many people with time, a Christmas with 2020 restriction will gift us connection.
What if you based your accomplishment as a mother on your connection with your child? We naturally reflect on how 'good' we are within our motherhood role, but so often we measure ourselves against a success criteria as if it’s job. Is my child on course to read by age 5? Have I taught my child to be well behaved all the time? Have I provided my child with the chance for most success in life by signing them up for after school activities that cover a range of areas, including music and sport, whether they have a deep interest or not? Am I serving at least 3 organic evening meals a week? Am I protecting my child from negativity to ensure they are at their most happy? Honestly, reading through these questions feels like being in a performance management meeting analysing KPIs. It’s no wonder we’re critical of ourselves! In the business world these would not be SMART targets. As mothers we are placing pressure on ourselves with unrealistic targets. Our children are not a project for us to manage. When we hold them in our arms for the first time, we feel the sense the opportunity that lays in front of them. We envisage a successful life that we then continue to project on to them. We feel the weight of responsibility to help them achieve this vision. This vision, however, is not ours to own and focusing on it leads us to set motherhood goals that we work on as if it was a 'job'. A job we will probably be rather critical of, especially if our children don't meet the expectations we have as a consequence of our goals. What if we focused on the relationship with our child instead? What would you look for now? How achievable do your motherhood goals become when they focus on relationship building? Maybe you’d think about closeness, enjoyment of time together, compassion, empathy, kindness and trust. Would you be kinder to yourself if you noticed how you and child show each other affection, or how you listened fondly as they told you about their day? Would you recognise the safe space you give and how supportive you are, when your child comes to you upset, hurt or afraid? Would you reframe the fact your child misses you when they are at school as a strong attachment, rather than an insecure child? Motherhood is not a job. It’s a relationship. There are so many ways we can spend quality time together as a family, but each season lends itself to certain activities that help us bond and nurture our relationship with our children. Autumn is probably my favourite for seasonal family activity time, because it feels like it brings a natural slowing down and pulls focus in to our family circle. This feels particularly important in our busy, modern lives. As it’s half term for us in the UK (and a 2 week lockdown here in Wales), I’ve been thinking of ways we can enjoy our time together whilst we stay at home. With the nights drawing in and the cooler days, it's the perfect time to seize the season embrace 'hygge' and enjoy some Autumn themed activities! Here's our ideas for easy and realistic ways you can connect as a family through the season Autumn. Art and Craft
Cosy Evenings
Get outdoors
We've created this lovely FREE Autumn Activity Checklist to help you ensure you spend quality time with your family at this beautiful time of year. Click here to download!
My little dude turned 4 yesterday! In the UK children enter school in the September after their 4th birthday (officially they can wait, but most don't) so school is just around the corner for him! Not only is he a super young school starter, but he left his nursery class in March which means the routine and social interaction of an educational setting is a distant memory. Aside from a 2-hour transition/closure session, he’s been with us every minute of every day since March 20th. That’s 157 days. I can’t even begin to imagine how it will feel to him to head off to full time school next week. He seems to feel positive about it, but even so, I think it’s so important to prepare and reassure our children for a return to school or to start their school journey.
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AuthorHey! I'm the founder, creator and voice of Ink and Scribbles. Sharing thoughts on child well-being and parenting that are based on my teaching and parenting experience, and NLP learning. |