Helping Your Child Look After Their Mental Health
Antoinette Steyn • April 28, 2022
As parents we sometimes get emerged in school exams, tests and assessments and sometimes neglect the mental health of our children. We sometimes forget that mental health also plays a big role in performing well academically. Here are a few things to keep in mind when looking after your child’s mental health:
- Role Model mentally healthy behaviour
Displaying positive mental health as a parents goes a long way. We are the most important role models in the lives of our children. You as a parent ultimately create the mental health habits your child will learn; - Good Coping Skills
Help your child learn skills such as coping skills and learning about taking different perspectives into account; - Talking about feelings
Have regular conversations with your child about the challenges they face, the things they enjoy and their ideas on how to deal with overwhelming feelings; - Overall wellbeing
Get your child involved in helping you choose healthy foods for dinner/lunch/breakfast. Wellbeing also includes a healthy exercise routine, spiritual health as well as mental health; - Self-care
Help your child to create time to look after yourself and encourage and show interest in thier hobbies; - Healthy play
Encourage healthy and creative play; - Relaxation
Help your child to develop healthy relaxation skills, such as deep breathing; - Relationships
Developing your child’s social skills and helping them to have good relationships is an important life skill. Helping your child develop good relationship skills can start with you as a parent teaching them the basic social skills such as introducing oneself to another person, how to compliment others, showing good manners etc.
Our overall mental health plays a big role in our ability to motivate ourselves, to go after our goals to aim for success and many more. Helping your child develop a healthy positive mindset from a young age, can help them throughout their lifetime.
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