Worry time!

Lots of our children are worrying more and more than they ever have done before, and let’s be honest, they have a lot to worry about!

I’m sure many of us can identify with feeling consumed by worries all the time, and one way to help our children with this is to encourage them to write them down as they experience them.

We can then set aside a time each day – I usually recommend after dinner – to sit down with them and talk through the worries that they have had.

The idea behind this is it allows our children to get the worries out of their head, and stop worrying about them, safe in the knowledge that they can have time and space to talk them through with you later.

Some worries will be easily resolved, and sometimes just allowing your child a space to say them aloud and know that you are listening will be enough. 

Try and listen to what they are saying – I know the urge to say “don’t be silly” or “it’ll be fine” can be quite great – we all want to make things better for our children. However, for them, these are often quite big worries, and it’s important that they are listened to.

For some of the bigger worries it can be best to start by writing the worry down, and then establishing what the evidence for and what the evidence against the worry might be.

Try to avoid giving your child the answers, but sometimes they do need a prompt! Remember – thoughts are not facts and opinions are not facts! So guide them to stick with the facts.

This can be a really simple but effective way to help our children feel a little bit better about their worries, and to be honest, it doesn’t just need to be for children, it works well for adults too!