As a parent, it’s important to take the role of helping your child cope with different challenges, hurdles and trauma that they can experience in life. Certain experiences are sure to put your child through the wringer and as a parent, it can be difficult to even know where to begin when helping them get through it. But ultimately, as long as they know that they can talk to you and they feel as though they have someone by their side, it’s always going to be far easier overall. Some of the issues that we are going to mention are unavoidable and others are more likely than not to impact your child at some point. So, let’s get started.
Bullying
First, it’s worth considering the issue of bullying. You might think that bullying is not a particularly common problem for children. However, the latest research doesn’t suggest this at all. Indeed, in one report, 70% of children said that they had felt bullied at some point in their life before the age of eighteen.
Bullying can take various different forms these days. It’s possible that your child is bullied online and this can be more dangerous than other physical forms of bullying because it often isn’t noticed at all. Indeed, it’s likely that this will go completely undetected, often until it’s too late.
This is why you need to make sure that you do have an open and honest relationship with your children. They need to feel as though they can talk to you about anything that might be bothering them or impacting them in school or outside of it.
Do note that you should also be on the lookout for signs of a child who is being bullied. If your child is experiencing bullying, then they are going to display changes in behavior. They could become more irritable and angry or you might find that they become far more withdrawn from you as well as from the world around them.
In some cases, you should speak to the school about bullying. Many schools have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to bullying. As such, they will try and stamp it out as soon as it is noticed. In other cases, it can be worth simply giving your child advice and helping them deal with it by themselves without the support of the school.
You’ll need to use your best judgment here and think about what is going to be most beneficial to your child.
Loss
Next, you should consider how loss is going to impact your child and specifically the loss of a loved one. Children deal with the loss of a loved one in different ways. If a child is under two years of age, they will understand that people around them are sad and they will be sad that someone has disappeared, but they won’t be able to attach any reason to it. Once they get a little older, your child understands more about death. But up until about six years of age, they will believe that death is something that can be reversed. This makes it more difficult for them to deal with as we would because they won’t be able to accept or understand the permanent change that has occurred.
As they get older, your child will understand death, often in a similar way to how an adult does. However, that doesn’t mean it will be any easier for them to deal with or handle losing someone. As such, it will be up to you to help them through this situation. There are lots of different ways that you can do this. For instance, you might want to think about helping them remember their loved one and what they meant to them. Cremation jewelry is a wonderful way to do this because it will give them something that they can hold close. This will ensure they feel like their loved one is always nearby and supporting them as they continue through life.
In other cases, it can be worth considering therapy to help your child through a loss. This might be worth considering if the loss in question was quite traumatic. It could have even had a long-term impact on your child that has lasted more than a few months.
Pressure To Succeed
Research shows that children feel more pressure to succeed right now. It’s quite common for children to feel as though they need to reach set goals to keep their parents happy or get the quality of life that they want. This starts from an early age and the pressure to succeed can often be felt even from the first couple of years of school.
It’s important to understand that this pressure can be damaging for a child. Some people worry that it is stopping children from actually experiencing being a kid because they are constantly thinking about the next goal that they need to tackle.
Dealing with this can be tricky but one of the options here is going to be making sure that your child is going to have the right level of downtime. This means that they shouldn’t be constantly focused on school. You need to guarantee that they do get the chance to have fun as well. Plan trips, do things together as a family, and ensure that they build up strong social developments.
You might want to help them complete different activities outside of school. This might include joining a sports team. But this shouldn’t just be another goal that they need to complete. You should make sure that they are having fun if they are doing something like this. They need to get enjoyment from it otherwise it’s just going to add even more pressure to their life.
Moving Homes
When your child is still young a home move isn’t going to have such a massive impact on their life. Kids up until the age of 5 are going to be quite resilient to a change like this. They might be more curious about a home move than anything. They will be fascinated by the new changes that are happening even if it does take a little time to adjust.
However, as kids get older a move becomes more difficult for them. Some kids will bounce back far more quickly than others. The difference with older kids is that they will be starting to build up social groups and connections that they rely on. So a home move is always going to be seen as a massive change and they might react negatively to this in some cases. To deal with that, you should make sure that you speak to your child about the different changes that the move will bring. You should also provide them with everything that they need to ensure that they can keep in contact with their friends when they move. Thanks to the latest tech this is often going to be easier than ever.
Relationships
Next, you should think about relationships in your child’s life. Relationships such as a best friend or a boyfriend and girlfriend can have a positive impact on your child. But they can also be quite stressful. For instance, it’s possible that your child does end up in a toxic relationship. The problem is that there’s always going to be a fine balance here between taking the right steps to protect them and letting them make their own mistakes that they can then learn from.
The trick here is to make sure that you are regularly talking to your child. They should feel as though they can discuss changes like this that are occurring in their life. It’s important that they don’t feel as though they have no one there around them when a relationship takes a turn for the worse. You should also avoid forcing your child to make a decision that you believe is right, even if it’s to save them from pain in the future.
Taking The Next Step After School
Finally, while you don’t want to put too much pressure on your child to succeed, it’s still important to ensure that they have the building blocks to make the next step once they finish school. This is something of a balancing act. One of the ways that you can help your child is by making sure that they are taking this seriously. You should also focus on providing them the opportunities that they need overall to get what they want later in life. We hope this helps you understand some of the difficulties that your child can face as well as the best ways that you will be able to help them deal with the situation the right way. Remember, helping your child through situations like this will guarantee that they don’t feel stressed or overwhelmed. Most importantly, it’s vital that your child doesn’t feel alone or abandoned when dealing with situations like this. They need to fully understand that you are there for them and always will be.