Handling Stressful Situations with your Child Effectively
On some days, disciplining your children seems to go smoothly; on other days, it seems to be a complete disaster. If you are at your wit's end, tired, and literally ready to scream, think of a person that you respect, and then pretend that he/she is watching you. It is amazing how this can help you to handle the situation more calmly and effectively, rather than being angry and losing your cool.
Here are some tips to deal with stress:
1. Teach them a few quick calming strategies
When kids are experiencing stress, they need to be able to do something in the moment to calm down.
Teach these to your child so they have a few simple strategies like
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Take a deep breath.
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Imagine your favorite place
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Pick a number
2. Start a dialogue about the stress
3. Simplify your schedule
There is such pressure to go and do CONSTANTLY. That puts a lot of stress on everyone in the family. Talk with your child about their schedule. Do they still like all of their activities? Is there something they’d like to stop doing? Cutting down to one or two activities a week would reduce stress. Simplifying the schedule would have the added benefit of allowing for some down time and freedom to play, which is a great stress reliever.
4. Find good distractions like
a) Find something that makes them laugh
b)help others
c)play a game
5. Model healthy coping strategies
As parents, we are our children’s first teachers. They watch our behaviors and see what we do when we’re stressed out. We need to model good, healthy coping strategies too.
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