Stress Coping Strategy is essential during these difficult times. Social and physical distancing has led to emotional and psychological distress in children. Under this stress, they too regress. Their way of life has changed, right from home schooling to spending whole day in house with no connect with schoolmates or friends. No playtime, no meetup, no gang up for pranks. They are just coping in isolation with this unreal world.
Coping with Unknown Mechanism
This isolation with missing friends connect, has added lot of anxiety, irritability, crankiness, disturbed eating and sleeping patterns, aggressive behaviors, excessive social media usage. This all has led them to react differently with this accumulated buildup which they don’t know how to express.
Children Have Different Ways to Reflect Their Anxiety. Look For Signs!
If your child is quieter, aloof, the frequency of engagement or conversation between you and your child has suddenly dropped, or your child is seeking your way too much of attention or want to talk about their worries, then consider these as a warning signs.
These signs show your child is under emotional stress. To overcome this you need to build some coping strategy to engage them in something productive and mentally stimulating.
Important Tips to Help Manage Your Child’s Emotional Stress
Communication
Proactively increase your conversation with your child and also with the people they like either through regular calls or video calls.
Social Media
Comparison of virtual lives on social media can lead to a sense of insecurity or unhealthy competition in children. Keeping a check on social media usage is only possible when you get involved with them. Get involved with them in activities which can keep them off social media.
Love
You may be busy throughout the day with your own set of chores and daily work pressures due to lockdown. But still find time to pour some love and attention to your children.
Hug them, give them kisses, say that you love them everyday.
Give your child kisses when they wake up.
Empathize
They don’t know how to express and process their negative emotions. Be patient with them. Empathize with them. Talk to them, hear them out. Relate to their pain and console them its just a phase and we need to learn to let go our negative emotions. Guide them ways to process their emotions effectively leading to better understanding and learning for them to cope up better in life.
Validate
Whatever they are feeling is their emotions, maybe you feel its not appropriate. But still validate and accept what they are feeling without passing any judgments. Accept their fears and support them for their emotions. This will help them become strong adults tomorrow.
Appreciate
Give them tasks to participate in the home chore burden. Get them responsible for the home initiatives. Appreciate them for all the little efforts they put in to help you out.
Schedule
Plan a healthy schedule for your child, taking into consideration meal timings, sleep and nap time, recreational time, study time and other extracurricular activities they might be engaged in at home via online or offline sources.
Be Creative
You need to think out of the box, to make their lockdown life interactive with lot of creative activities which can keep them engaged, happy and wise throughout the day.
There are lot of online activities and workshops for kids to participate. Get yourself added to such groups so that you get notifications for all the upcoming events or workshops where you can enroll your kids for some creative learning.
Parents can play an important role in this lockdown time by teaching their kids the real life skills to build a strong coping mechanism which can help them face challenges and become successful in Life!
Join Creative Groups on Facebook
- 5 Minute Crafts
- DIY & Crafts
- Cooking Shooking
- Free Online Cooking and Baking Classes
- Make Expression
- Taste Buds Kitchen (Plano, TX)
- Art Therapy By Nupur Gupta
- Karvys Art Design & Arch
You May Like to Read
One thought on “Stress Coping Strategy for Kids In Lockdown”