Hello, dear conscious parent 💟!

I’ve done lots of research on this topic and I AM WORRIED. The pandemic was a traumatic life experience for most children around the globe. Today I want to share with you what I’ve learned from the readings and from working with parents in my practice.

1) SOURCE OF FEAR IN CHILDREN ARE:

• family context
• parents’ anxiety (expressed verbally and non-verbally)
• how parents coped with their own anxiety and what they MODELED to their children
• exposure to mass-media and negative news
• outside communication with family members, teachers, peers and social media
• child’s individual predisposition to anxiety
• natural, age-appropriate fears.

“The significant indirect effect of parental fear on children’s fear through negative information transmission and modeling indicates that parents who are more afraid tend to express their fear verbally or through their behavior, leading to an increase in children’s fear.”
(Radanović, Micić, Pavlović and Krstić, (2021) Don’t Think That Kids Aren’t Noticing: Indirect Pathways to Children’s Fear of COVID-19- *read full academic article here)

2) FEARS THAT CHILDREN FEEL BUT CAN’T VERBALLY EXPRESS ARE:

• fear of death of loved ones
• fear of getting sick unexpectedly
• fear of failing in school
• fear of going back to school
• fear of the future
• fear of separation from parents when returning back to daycare + school.

3) FEAR SHOWS UP IN CHILDREN’S BEHAVIOR/EMOTIONS AS:

• anger
• tantrums
• disappointment
• sadness
• grief
• loss
• powerlessness
• helplessness
• withdraw & self-isolation
• feeling alone and lonely
• feeling misunderstood
• feeling judged

4) THIS IS HOW WE CAN HELP OUR CHILDREN  HEAL THESE FEARS:

• lots of roughhousing+laughter (no tickling ever!) (*read Playful Parenting, book by Dr. Larry Cohen)
• lots of 1:1 undivided time (*see Special Time – click here)
• lots of sports, body movement and any kind of physical activities
• lots of outdoors time (80/20 rule for outdoors vs. screen time, at least as an intention)
• therapeutic arts, dance, painting and theater

CREATE SAFETY FOR EMOTIONAL RELEASE. LISTEN. LISTEN. LISTEN.

IF YOU WANT TO BE PREPARED FOR ANY SITUATION IN THE FUTURE, MAKE SURE YOU SIGN UP FOR FREE WEBINAR WITH ME HAPPENING IN JUST 2 DAYS- MONDAY, AUGUST 9, 9:00 PM EST.