As Mark Twain said, 'My life has been filled with calamities, some of which actually happened.'
Article Source: msnbc.com
from:msnbc.comHow your worrying messes up your kids... and 4 ways to stop
Seeded on Thu Sep 8, 2011 10:16 AM EDT (msnbc.com)
- msnbc.com sites & shows:
- TODAY
- Rock Center
- Nightly News
- Meet the Press
- Dateline
- Morning Joe
- Hardball
- Ed
- Maddow
- Last Word
- msnbc tv
Leave a Comment:
Saving...
check out.......www.toolkitsforkids.com. They are wonderful tools for children.....grade school, middle school and high school.......each kit is geared to the individual age group and deals with everyday issues they may encounter from stress to worry to resilience.......developed by a Scarsdale Psychologist and 2 of her colleagues.
I worry that I worry too much.
Hummmmm, that IS a worrisome issue, alright! Lemme angst over that for a bit! :o)
This is so me! I am thankful to hear this segment on worrying. It is completely wrong how much I worry. I need to stop! PRAY we all need to just Pray...Why worry when you can PRAY!
So I have only myself to blame when my children grow older, develop anxiety disorders and self medicate with drugs and alcohol. Super.
But also don't paint a picture of a world that doesn't exist. The world is a dangerous place. Doesn't mean you have to obcess and seek to protect against everything.
It's more important to learn how to either overcome or handle a bad situation or calamity. It's more important to enjoy life as it is, at the exact moment that to obcess about what might be.
And stop worrying about what could have happened when it never happened.
I'm definitely a worrywart. I wasn't when I was younger, but with money issues, no job, and the economy in the toilet, I'm really worried. But I think kids need to understand that, too. Explain why you and daddy are worried. Kids are not stupid little animals, they're gunna have to deal with this stuff, too.
You are so right. But in addition to letting kids know what you are worried about and why it is good to engage them in some problem solving practice too. This can be as simple as figuring out the least expensive nutritional foods for supper / dinner or as complicated as coming up with creative solutions to earn money or reduce family debt.
Be open minded even seemingly silly ideas can have a practical possibility if you think about it. At worse they will give you a chuckle.
This teaches coping and problemsolving skills both of which are sorely lacking in todays youth.
Totally agree. My mother was a single teenage mom, so money was hard to come by. Yeah, nana helped out, but there's only so much one can do. My mom and I made a game : we looked up what we wanted, and thought of cheaper substitutes. Instead of beef, use turkey, etc. Instead of going to GAP for clothes, we looked at Good Will (found a lot of designer clothes there). And so on. It was a fun activity, and no one at school knew I was less then well off. I learned how to handle my worries, without being kept in the dark.
I worry about getting a job and pay my bills, very hard not to think about it.
OK... Worrying because you are out of work and you wonder how you're going to pay your bills, put food on the table, pay for school supplies, etc. is perfectly natural and normal. Worrying just for the sake of worrying (will my kids be OK? Am I pretty/handsome enough? Do I have a nice enough car/house/bike/clothes/etc) is just ridiculous.