It’s a given that most parents want to raise their children to be grateful.
We intuitively believe that being grateful will lead to a number of good habits and qualities: politeness, humility, and respect, to name a few.
But what can be easily overlooked is that an inherent sense of gratitude is not only beneficial for our experience and interaction with others…
It can also be one of the greatest gifts we can give to ourselves and our children.
How?
Our staff psychologist Dani Kaufman was recently quoted in an article on news.com.au, titled ‘Raising well-adjusted kids’.
The article suggests that there is one ritual that every parent should do with their child before the age of seven.
The ritual in question?
Routine.
The prevalence of childhood anxiety has more than doubled in the last twenty years.
And while we all experience anxious feelings at times, certain children will suffer more greatly, with their anxieties interrupting the functioning of their daily lives.
This could mean that it affects their sleeping, their socialising, or their ability to concentrate at school.
We’ve discussed a number of techniques for dealing with childhood anxiety on the blog…
But a useful tool for very young kids dealing with anxiety can be introducing a ‘worry box’ into their daily routine.
We’ve discussed a lot of issues surrounding the final years of high school on the blog over the years…
How to help your child survive the VCE, part 1, part 2 and part 3;
How to deal with the pressures of year 12 (by reducing them);
Motivation and success during VCE; and
How to help your child pick their final year electives.
But for many of you, you will now be in the grips of the climactic point of your child’s high school education: their final exams.
So Australia’s leading online mental health organisation for young people — ReachOut — has published some practical tips for parents, to help you help your child through this stressful period.
We’ve talked about motivation and success when it comes to study and examinations.
But an increasingly important issue surrounding these ideas is the pressure that is put on our students…
By the education system, by parents, and by the students themselves.
Studies show that in Australia, we are bordering on an adolescent mental health epidemic.
Instances of anxiety and depression in young people are becoming increasingly and alarmingly common.
And a huge source of these conditions is stress from schooling.
The pressure is even taking a toll on parents, with a mental health organisation setting up extra counselling services for parents of high school students.
So how do we help our kids, and ourselves, to deal with the pressure?
Our staff psychologist Christina Rigoli was quoted on page 3 of The Age today, discussing the tactics parents use to motivate their kids to study.
Among them — bribing with $18,000 holidays, threats of boarding school, and house-wide technology freezes!
The parents confessing to these ‘motivation tactics’ said their efforts paid off, but this is more a matter of chance than formula.
The key distinction in this equation is that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to motivation…
What may work in encouraging one child could backfire and have the opposite affect on another.
So how do you know what the right method of motivation is for your child?
We recently addressed the issue of ‘screen time’ in children’s and adolescents on the blog.
Most of us are guilty of becoming increasingly reliant on our telephones and computers for communicating, working, paying bills and even getting from A to B…
But there is a difference between reliance on technology and addiction to technology.
And if you think your child may be in the latter category, the sooner you address it the better.
So what are the signs of a technology addiction, in children in particular?
Losing a loved one is a heartbreaking experience at any age.
And watching our children go through the process can make the experience even more devastating.
It’s a parent’s natural urge to want to shield their children from pain and sadness.
But this isn’t realistic — not during childhood, and not during adulthood.
Loss and sadness are inevitable parts of life, but teaching your children positive and productive coping mechanisms will help them through the process in the short and long term.
So how do we deal with a grieving child?
Most of us will understand the concepts of evolutionary biology:
The theory that all species have developed from earlier species, and have continuously adapted to the environment through a process of natural selection.
Evolution has been instrumental to developments in our understanding of science and medicine, but it has also led to developments in ‘life sciences’, such as psychology.
And although evolutionary psychology has its skeptics, it can provide a foundation for understanding why we think, feel and behave the way we do.
These explanations can be particularly useful in creating self-awareness and acceptance in children.
Especially when it comes to anxiety.
We’ve discussed the Fixed versus Growth mindset model on the blog a few times.
It’s something worth noting and considering in many aspects of parenting.
But keeping the principles in mind when helping your kids pick VCE electives can be particularly beneficial for their long-term goals.
A recent article in The Atlantic discusses how a Fixed mindset inadvertently affects our children in their future study choices.
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(*As of 24th July, 2019.)