Learning some of these Stress Management Tips for Kids and Teens can become important for parents.
Stress Management Tips For Kids
Kids can stress just as much as adults can.
This is why parents need to learn some ways they can help teach their kids’ stress management.
The best way parents can help their kids with stress is to be proactive with their kids’ lifestyles.
Everything from not over-scheduling to listening when your kid sounds overwhelmed is all ways parents can help with stress management for kids.
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How Do You Explain Stress To A Child?
It’s best to explain what stress is to a child so that they’re more apt to recognize this feeling and be open in communicating with you.
Stress is best described to kids as a feeling that comes when you’re worried about something or uncomfortable about a situation.
The feelings associated with stress include anger, sadness, and frustration.
These feelings should be explained to your child as a means to define how being stressed feels and for them to know that these feelings are also normal.
As parents informing our kids if they ever feel any of these emotions, that it’s best they come to you so that you can help them figure out the best way to manage it before it becomes problematic.
Make Sleep a Priority
The biggest way to help kids with stress management is to ensure they get enough sleep each night.
Create a bedtime routine for your kids that allows them to get an adequate amount of sleep each night based on the recommended hours of sleep required per age.
This could be one of the most important ways that kids can start managing stress in their life.
Create a daily nighttime routine depending on your child’s age and the after school activities.
Some days they might have to go to bed a bit earlier because they had a later night or have an early morning.
Fit this into their schedule. Believe me, it works.
Deep Breathing And Journaling
Deep breathing techniques can help kids who are stressed out.
Teach your kids how to breathe out while they count to three and breathe in while counting to three.
Have your kids practice this over and over until they start to feel a calmness overcoming their mind and body.
Eventually, it can become apart of their stress management routine before their emotions escalate.
Kids are different and handle their emotions differently.
In fact, while I can get my youngest daughter to stop and breathe, my oldest daughter prefers to write in her journal.
Journaling is a way for her to write down her emotions without losing control of her stress.
Drawing pictures is a great journaling technique I used in my classroom with younger children.
Encourage Brain Breaks
Have your kids take a break every thirty minutes to do nothing.
Just like our brains get tired, so does theirs! If not more so.
Let them shake out their wiggles, take a walk or sit still without any electronics in front of them.
This is the perfect time for them to get either school reading in or just go outside and let them be kids.
Sometimes we forget that they are kids and being able to let out little of those feel-good endorphins can go a long way for a child.
Teaching your kids to pause their brains every half hour or so will help them stop feeling overwhelmed with stress.
Serve Healthy Food
Kids who thrive on fatty and greasy foods will stress more frequently than kids who eat a healthier diet.
So, yes, even with busy schedule parents should try to make sure their kids are eating a well-blanaced meal.
You must purchase and serve mostly healthy food options for meals and snacks.
Meal plan weekly so that you can see first hand what will be served and keep a journal if your child starts to get more frustrated than usual after eating certain foods.
This can really help you eliminate foods that are not helping your child manage their stress levels.
In our home that’s grains and sweets. We keep them to a minimum in our home even though our daughters aren’t thrilled about it.
A healthy diet can keep your kids’ mind and body running smoothly for reduced stress during tough and busy days.
Don’t Over Schedule
Ask your kids how they feel about their daily schedule.
Some kids can handle more activities than others, that’s why it’s important to keep open communication about whether your kids feel like their schedule is too much for them, remove activities that seem too overwhelming for each kid.
We run a busy schedule, being that both of our girls dance and our youngest dances competitively.
That’s why I always make sure that they are okay with their schedule. My husband and I don’t add anything on that they have asked to do so.
Once we see that they are stressing or overwhelmed we set up a family meeting to see what can be changed in our schedule.
Keep open communication with your kids. They will be the first to tell you if they feel like they are doing too much.
Try To Keep A Routine
Kids will have less stress when they know what’s expected of them each day.
This means you should set forth a daily and weekly routine that fits into your life. Not the other way around.
Creating a family calendar so your kids can see what appointments, events, after school activities, and weekend activities is a great way for them to know what to expect.
Schedules can change daily, just make sure that your kids know those changes before they happen.
Last-minute changes can be very disruptive for kids, so try to keep is as evenly as possible.
Our schedule is different every day, but my girls know what to expect because everything is written on our monthly calendar and it repeats itself every week.
This routine will help minimize stress as your kids will know what’s expected of them each day and what they have to do regularly.
Get Active
If all else fails and your kid is still stressing out, try to get active more often.
Have your kids play outside, take a walk, or ride a bicycle to get their stress levels lowered.
I know this goes against having a busy schedule, but see if your child wants to do a sport after school.
It’s a great way for kids to get both exercises and burn out some energy from being sitting at school.
Physical activity will naturally boost your kids’ happy hormones so that stress is reduced almost immediately.
How Can Parents Help Kids and Tweens Manage Stress
As you can see, stress management for kids is much like stress management tips for parents.
Each of these tips will help your kids manage their stress levels in all stages of childhood.
Keeping a routine, getting enough sleep and eating healthier foods are three of the best ways to help your kids manage their stress levels.
Keeping the schedule to a minimum and developing a daily routine can help encourage a stress-free lifestyle for our children.
Kids also need a combination of all of these stress management tips to live a healthier and happier lifestyle.
Helpful Stress Management Resources For Parents
As a parent of tweens who have a very busy schedule, I’m always looking for new books to read or activities to help me help my kids.
Here are a few resources I found on Amazon I thought you might enjoy.
Some Parenting Resources From The Blog
Will you be using these tips to help your child manage their stress?
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