Helping Your Children Deal with Times of Change
In all walks of life,
times of change are inevitable at some point or another. Trying to deny such
change is futile, then, as it’s going to happen whether you like it or not! A
much more productive way to spend your time is to embrace this change, accept that it is going to happen, and prepare
for it in the best way possible.
Dealing with times of
change in a healthy and productive manner
is especially important when children are involved. Kids aren’t always able to
grasp the concept of life moving forward and things being a bit different,
which is why you need to help your little ones deal with any change that may
befall them.
Here are a few things
you can do to do just that:
Provide
them with advanced warnings
If
you have the luxury of being able to forecast a specific time of change, you should put your knowledge of
the forthcoming event to good use by providing your children with an advanced
warning of its arrival. By doing so, you will provide your children with the
opportunity to get used to how different their life is going to be going
forward before the change actually takes
place. If you want them to make a healthy transition, this is a must.
The warnings that you
provide to your children should always be age-appropriate — confusing them with adult information will help
nobody in this situation. You should also make sure that your warnings are
sensitive, as this will help you avoid scaring your little ones.
Protect
them from the particularly hard elements of the change
No matter how grown
up or sensible they appear to be on the surface, children generally do not deal
well with difficult situations when they
are forced to come face-to-face with them. For this reason, you should seek to
protect your kids from the particularly hard elements of the change that has befallen them. If, for example, you and their
other parent decide to part ways, you have to ensure that everything about the
separation is done in the right way. This
means enlisting the help of
a divorce lawyer Lake County, IL to make sure that your kids’ interests are looked
out for throughout all of the stages of the breakup.
Make them feel like they are in control
As stated, change can
be hard for children to grasp. For the most part, what scares them the most in
this kind of situation is the fact that they feel like they are not in control
of their life — this is especially common in older children and teens. You
should, then, make your kids feel like they are in control of the change, if only just a little
bit.
For example, if you
ever move home and find that one of your children is not happy about it, allow
them the freedom to help you pick the new home. Providing your child with a
degree of responsibly in this instance, if only just a little, will be sure to
make them feel much more comfortable with the situation.
To truly help your child deal with times of
change, you must heed the pics of advice listed above.
