Tip 2: Create enough space for relaxation

Healthy eating, healthy sleeping and healthy play all contribute to reducing stress in a child’s life. Making time to be with your children each day is emotionally reassuring to them, especially when they are little. According to one organization that deals with stress in childhood “a two-year old child may very well be anxious because a parent isn’t there enough to satisfy him or her. For pre-school children, separation from parents is the greatest cause of anxiety.”

To have enough relaxed time, we may need to reorganize our own schedules, as well as to think carefully about our children’s. We may imagine they love going to a club or the playground everyday after school, when in reality they find messing about at home more relaxing after a busy day. Too many after-school activities can be highly stressful for children.

Parents want their children to shine not just academically but also creatively and socially. There is more of a tendency to see every aspect as something to “get right” rather than just for pleasure.

If we ourselves are constantly wound up, our children will sense and share our stress. Just being around for them, without engaging them in activities every minute, is usually enough to release their pressure valve. Observe how each child relaxes. Do things for fun, not just to improve. Resist always turning games and activities into a coaching session.

Hope this tip helps us to relax and let our children relax.

Next week we will share about another tip. Till then try working on this tip to teach our children how to truly relax!