Five Tips to Help Improve Mental Health in Children

Key Takeaways

• The toughest part of parenting comes when your children grow older and become independent. 
• There are a few ways that you can follow to make sure that you support and protect their mental health. 
• A trained therapist is an excellent choice to guide your kids in understanding the importance of sharing their problems without holding back. 
•  Give them space for open communication. Be understanding and not critique them for their choices.

What mental health needs is more sunlight, more candor, and more unashamed conversation.

• Glenn Close

Being a parent can be tough. Most new parents often think that birth and the first few months are the toughest parts of parenthood. 

However, while these moments are challenging in their own right, the real trials can come later, once your children grow older. It’s every parent’s first instinct to protect their child against anything, but as your child grows older and more independent, it can become more and more impossible to shield them. 

As your children grow older, they can encounter all sorts of events that can be challenging to deal with and can impact their mental health. 

As parents, you might be unable to prevent these events. However, there are still ways you can support them and ensure that you protect their mental health. 

If you’re interested in learning more, keep reading below.

Ideally, your children should have a strong enough bond with you that they’re able to share everything. However, in many cases, they often go through various events and feel you might not relate to them as a parent. 

There’s also the fear of judgment, especially if your kids have gotten into a bad situation. 

In such cases, it’s best to put them in touch with a trained, trusted individual. Therapy can help them open up and talk about anything damaging their mental health. 

Sometimes, even when you try your best, you may not have the tools to deal with or understand what your kid is going through. 

A trained therapist can bring an objective, trained lens and can provide solutions to aid your child’s recovery. When selecting a therapist, be sure to check their credentials first. 

Typically, a therapist with a psychology online degree accredited would be an excellent choice to guide the kids and help them understand the nuances of sharing their problems without holding anything back. 

It can be hard to keep up with your children, no matter how hard you try. Sometimes, even if you have a healthy, open relationship with them, they might not share what’s bothering them. 

This then calls for some detective work if you want to stay updated on whatever is going on in their lives. 

In general, children can go through a range of different emotions as they grow older. Tween and teenage years, particularly, can be turbulent and hard for parents to keep up with. 

While it’s normal for your kids at these ages to want to spend more time with friends, stay out late, or go through emotional ups and downs, you’ll know what’s normal and what’s out of the ordinary as a parent. 

If your child is becoming too anxious, isolated, secretive, or otherwise disturbed, it’s paramount to step in. Doing so can help you get to the root of the problem before things worse for your child.  Make them understand that It’s okay not to be okay. 

If you feel dealing with growing children is tough, imagine how hard it must be on your kids. Every experience can be new; they will routinely encounter things they can’t understand and have never experienced before. 

Navigating relationship dynamics, school stress, and more can be challenging. Your kids will need a voice of wisdom to guide them through life and assist them to make the right choices. 

However, if your kids fear judgment or punishment from you, you might not be who they turn to. While instilling discipline and values is important, being a safe space for your kids is also vital. 

So, whenever they get into a bad situation, they’ll know that they can ask you for help. When your children come to you with a problem, your first response should be understanding, not critique. 

Answer their questions honestly, and teach them to learn from their mistakes actively instead of instilling fear. 

Most parents feel that creating open communication means giving their kids total freedom. However, that’s far from the case. Open communication can benefit both parties and teaches kids to adhere to your rules. To do so, it’s important to set clear expectations without any ambiguity from the start. 

Instead of telling your kids what is allowed and what isn’t, treat them like rational beings who understand why. Explain to them why certain things are off-limits and that you have their best interests at heart. 

Setting a good example and showing them that the same rules apply to you is imperative. Allowing them to understand why certain things are off-limits can help them choose to stay away from anything that can harm their mental or physical well-being. 

Moreover, the discipline you instill can assist your children to develop lifelong good habits to keep their lives on track. 

Young children spend as much time at school as they do at home, if not more. School is the primary place where they socialize, play, and learn, and as a parent, you must stay on top of whatever happens at school. 

In the best scenario, the school can be an incredibly healthy, proactive environment that gives them immense growth opportunities. 

However, in many cases, the school can be equally toxic and an environment where one is exposed to bullying, drugs, and concepts they’re too young to understand properly. 

Staying connected to whatever happens in school is thus pivotal. Keep checking in with their teachers to see if your children’s academic performance has changed. 

Do You Know?
According to a survey, one in five children were bullied in their school years.

Conclusion 

Raising children is no easy task; a parent’s job can be emotionally and physically taxing. As they grow older, they’ll have increased exposure to everything you want to protect them from. 

However, the tips in this article can help you protect your children’s mental health and help them overcome any challenge they encounter.