11/09/2022
Why we need to be having these tricky conversations with our kids 👇🏻
The truth about tricky topics 👇🏻👇🏻
It makes sense the hesitation you can feel to tell a child the truth about something… especially a topic you may even have difficulty making sense of yourself; a loved one dying, the illness of someone you care about, or a big life transition (like divorce) etc., the truth can be hard to sit with let alone verbalise.
Here’s the thing, kids are WAY more tuned into what is happening around them than we might realise. They notice the change in body language, the whispers in the kitchen, Mum quietly crying in the bathroom — they absorb it all. And as much as the natural instinct is to protect them from the realities of life, and the hard truths we all come up against, when we avoid these conversations we are actually INCREASING their anxiety.
It’s not the information that is scary to a child, it’s a lack of information that feels scary.
And when it’s left to a child to make sense of something they don’t understand, kids then default to one of two things:
Self-blame or self-doubt.
When children receive information about tricky topics from a loving, trusted adult, we not only help them build resilience, we help them to feel safe.
What topics would you love some help talking to a child about 👇🏻
