VIDEO: Helping Children Through Stress and Anxiety

Children experience stress and anxiety in ways we don’t always recognize as parents. Whether children are home with parents during a quarantine, or learning what life is like in the middle of a divorce of those parents, how to help children manage their stress and anxiety is an important question for all parents. As an attorney working in the area of family law, children going through difficult times is not unusual, however, quarantine is and it became all too apparent that I needed help in learning how to talk to my children about what’s happening in the world.

I reached out to my friend Anna Beckham, a Licensed Professional Counselor, to help with some of the questions that I had about helping kids manage stress and anxiety and I anticipate that conversation can be helpful for others so we’ve shared it here.

You’re going to hear a number of great takeaways from Anna that are going to help you better parent through difficult times. Some of the takeaways you’ll hear are:

1. Validate and appreciate your children’s feelings. Helping your children work through their anxiety begins by validating their feelings and helping them understand you hear them and can appreciate the way they feel.
   
   
2. Maintain Routine and Consistency. We also need to help maintain routine and consistency as much as possible when children are going through changes in their lives.
   
   
3. Ask for help when needed. Don’t be afraid to reach out for help when you feel the need. It’s nothing to be ashamed of and it is a sign of mature parenting when one understands they may not have all the answers.
   
   And much more.

Anna also recommends the following resources to help parents during this and future difficult times:

www.nctsn.org

www.gonoodle.com

The Body Keeps the Score

The Whole-Brain Child

The Explosive Child

The National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255.