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Schoolchildren are at risk of burnout, a state of complete mental, physical and emotional exhaustion. Young children face rigorous academic pressures along with extra-curricular demands. To these, add the stress of future higher education, which only adds to their stress. This is where parents need to come forward and support them.
Also read: Are the kids having a hard time? Kidulting is a fun parenting strategy that makes it easy
To understand how parents can help their children, Meghna Kanwat, clinical psychologist at Lisun, shared with HT Lifestyle some key hacks and techniques that can help.
“First, setting realistic goals and expectations, not driven by perfectionism, helps reduce anxiety in children. Parental stress and parenting stress have been shown to contribute to children’s academic and learning stress through pathways involving harsh discipline or psychological distress,” the psychologist said, highlighting the need to manage our own stress as parents. If the parents themselves start getting stressed, then the child also becomes stressed. Meghna stressed that parents should take a gentle approach, especially when children are already under stress.
The psychologist added, “The second tip is to strengthen the parent-child relationship by nurturing open communication, emotional responsiveness and flexibility that acts as a buffer.” This means that when parents respond with empathy, children feel safe and heard.
To deal with burnout, parents need to be able to recognize the symptoms early. The psychologist revealed that these include fatigue, skepticism, falling grades and withdrawal. She also emphasized that empathy is important because validating the child’s experience ensures that parent-child communication remains open and supportive.
Now that you are aware of the general strategies and techniques, let’s look at more specific approaches for primary and secondary children as they face different pressures and may require different approaches.
primary school children
“For primary school children, parents can help by ensuring a balanced schedule that includes unstructured play, rest and a variety of activity (strike a ‘play-rest-learn’ balance) and not with overly competitive or high-pressure tasks,” Meghna said.
Secondary school children and adults
Suggesting techniques for older schoolchildren, the psychologist explained, “For older, secondary school students, in addition to the above, parents can encourage and teach self-regulation skills (deep breathing, grounding exercises), help teens reflect on their values and priorities, maintain strong school connections (so students feel supported rather than merely evaluated), Schedule ‘non-academic days'”
Note to readers: This article is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your doctor with any questions you may have about a medical condition.
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