Antifragility - the silver lining to hardship
Parenting and mental health
From Beyond Blue
Families are where children first learn about love, support and belonging. Children and young people who are part of a strong and supportive family are more likely to achieve their best possible mental health. Most parents know this. It can also feel like a lot of pressure.
It’s important to consider the ‘whole child’ when thinking about your child’s mental health. You can better understand your child by attempting to understand what’s going on in their world.
A range of factors shapes a child’s life and their mental health and wellbeing:
- their nature (including their biological make-up)
- significant events and experiences that happen to them
- their family, relationships, learning environment and community
- broader systems, such as government public policies and health services.
You nurture the whole child when you:
- support their relationships
- help them develop social and emotional skills
- acknowledge adversity (for example, poverty or neglect).
Antifragility and 'Post Traumatic Growth'
Learning to accept and even embrace painful emotions is an important part of a happy life. Watch the video below to learn about how resilience can be built from our life experiences.
Book recommendations for parents
Drawing on stunning new findings in neurobiology and attachment research, they explain how interpersonal relationships affect the development of the brain, and offer a step-by-step approach to forming a deeper understanding of our life stories which help us raise compassionate and resilient children.
Cave has covered in his time here: the Black Summer fires; the Christchurch massacre; and, of course, Covid?The result is Grit meets Phosphorescence and Any Ordinary Day – a book that will change the way you and your family think about facing the world’s hazards.
Have good intentions, over-parenting and the decline in unsupervised play led to the emergence of modern identity politics and hypersensitivity?In this book, free speech campaigner Greg Lukianoff and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt investigate a new cultural phenomenon of "safetyism".
Is your child refusing to go to school?
Psychologist Michael Hawton provides parents and carers with seven simple steps to enable them to support their anxious children to return to school consistently. It may seem overwhelming, balancing supporting your child through anxious thoughts and feelings and wanting to provide them with the best education and social experiences in their development.
Michael Hawton, a psychologist, father and trained teacher with 30 years' experience, walks parents and carers through some simple steps they can implement straight away to set their child on the right track to returning to school consistently. For a more in-depth look at child anxiety and how to manage it in your family, head to our website and check out our online self-paced course The Anxiety Coach; for all parents wanting to support their child the best they can. https://www.parentshop.com.au/parents/anxiety-coach-parents
Click here to have free digital resources sent to you - https://tinyurl.com/mvbef6vh
Learn more here - https://www.parentshop.com.au/blog/7-steps-for-helping-your-anxious-child-return-to-school