Much like adults, children struggle with stress. Between too many commitments, conflicts with family members and even problems with their peers, stress can overwhelm them.
The key to helping kids manage stress is by teaching them to problem-solve, to make plans and know when to say yes and no to activities and commitments. Here are some ways to help your kids manage stress successfully:
Make sleep a priority.
Sleep is vital for everything from minimizing stress to boosting mood to improving school performance. If children aren’t getting enough sleep, it’s a red flag that they are overscheduled.
Stop over scheduling.
One of the biggest stressors for children is being overscheduled. Seven hours of school coupled with after-school extra-curricular activities and homework make for a busy day. Children need downtime to rejuvenate so that their brains and bodies can rest.
Prepare your children to deal with mistakes.
For children, a lot of stress comes from the fear of making a mistake. Reminding them that they are not supposed to know how to do everything right at this stage in their lives can eliminate a lot of this. While making good decisions is an important skill, it’s just as important to know how to recover from a bad one.
While stress will never be fully eliminated from our daily lives, these three tricks may help you lower the stress levels your children face every day.