How to make your child emotionally healthy and strong

 How to make your child emotionally strong

By Samina R. Waqar ( 15 Jan 2022)

 

     Every parent has a goal to raise their children mentally strong to chase their life’s ups and down.

How do parents grow their child's mentally strong and healthy? Parents dream to make their child mentally healthy and strong. In today’s world, our kids go through lots of anxieties and stress. It could be social anxiety, it could be peer pressure, feeling different from others, it could be stress related to their studies or their exams. There is so much going on. So it’s important to figure out their mental health related issues and support them.

    There are 7 mental health-related things that help parents to build mental health of their child.

The first tip is

1. Be a good role model 

As a parent, it is very tempting to teach their child a lecture. I do that to be, honestly, I feel that as parent, they have a license to give their child a lecture but not to solve real problems, But teaching by example and being a role model is way more effective so what I like to do with my kids is to things out loud in front of them, whenever you’re dealing with a problems or you got confused sad or angry, let them observe. That how mom deals with things which goes wrong and how mom’s deals with failures. it is really important for the parents to teaching by example and being a role model is way more effective as a parents they have to do things out loud In front of them Whenever they are dealing with problem Or confused, sad or angry let them observe on first that how mom deals with things goes wrong and how mom’s deals with the failures. It’s important for the parents to show them how they fail and how they face with the failures so that the lesson keeps in their mind that it is okay to fail and move on. I love the quote that “ There is no mistake, only a lesson”

2: Help kids practice gratitude: 

Let your child write down what they are grateful for. It’s important because having an attitude of gratitude is a trait of strong people, and it also helps to grow a strong mindset. When you are grateful for the things that you have, focusing on the things that you want to have helps to promote your mental health, and you go more positive and optimistic individuals. 

3. Inculcate self-love in kids

     Self-love is a skill that is so important to build as an adult, it’s important for your mental health to get self-love. It is crucial for parenting practice to discourage negative reinforcement. Parents should have to give 4 positive reinforcements to their child,, so there is a 1:4 ration between negative and positive reinforcement. Compliment them by using the word oh, you did a very good effort or oh! You worked so hard. So you have always praised them for their hard work or their efforts. 

While giving them a positive reinforcement, always remember that to focus on the efforts they give, not on the results they get because sometimes the end results are not always in our control.

4. Teach kids to process feelings and emotion:

This one is a big one, this is so important for their mental health. The need to process your feelings is crucial to build your child's mental health. Unprocessed emotion can cause lots of issues as they grow. As parents, they need to identify their children’s feelings, whenever they are rude or angry, let them know to accept and acknowledge that it's okay to be sad, it’s okay to be rude. If you have a son, give him a message that it’s okay to cry because lots of the time society makes a point that boys should not cry and expressing a feeling is a sign of weakness, and that is something so wrong that both boys and girls should be able to express their emotions, process their emotions and cry. That is the reason why the suicide rates are high in males than females. Boys have been raised to be strong and macho, so they don’t express their emotions, or they don’t cry, but I think that is so biased towards the mental health of men. 

Parents should guide their children and give them time to process their sadness to overcome it and learn to calm themselves before they come to a normal stage. Normally we think that happiness is things which we need to feel is the goal. But sadness has a purpose. Sorrow has a role to play in your life that it needs to be felt, it needs to be processed.

5. Give kids space:

     Sometimes the best thing you do is to give your children space. Sometimes your daughter cries because the toy has broken or something. After giving a hug, calm her and tell her to go to their bedroom and cry as much as you can and calm down, and once you feel okay, you come back to me. 

 Giving them space is very important because, as much as we want to support them, we also want to help to learn themselves. Be independent and learn how to calm themselves. It’s okay to leave them alone for their own betterment.

6. Read books with kids (Growth and mental health):

There are lots of books available on the market which is quite interesting. The Kid connects with books and connects with the characters in the book. I find it is a great way for their mental health. Read with them and allow them to read it with you and talk about its characters. It’s a great way of bonding with your children.