
How To Properly Break Difficult News Out to Your Children

As a parent, communication and maintaining an open and honest relationship is one of the most important tasks for your child’s development and to keep a healthy and interactive relationship. While every parent’s instinct is to protect their children from dangers, violence, trauma, or other tragedies, children’s lives could still be regularly touched by trauma without the parents realizing it.
How can difficult news affect your children if not addressed properly?

Cottonbro/ Pexels | Avoid minimizing or dismissing your child’s feelings
With technology actively taking control over our lives and doing the heavy lifting, kids are now bound to find out the news one way or another. This could happen through tweets, posts, breaking news, or alert notifications sent directly to the phone.
This news can vary from a horrific mass shooting, terrorist attack, murder or suicide, violent political rally, or the global pandemic. Such conversations do not seem easy, and parents often take a proactive stance and avoid complex topics altogether.
Some kids have a challenging time understanding and coping with the news events, while children in their teens usually cope and understand the current situation and face the challenges. A piece of terrible news can eventually be threatening or upsetting, affecting kids emotionally and mentally. The feeling of fear, anxiousness, stress, anger or even guilt last for an extended period that can affect them later in life and throughout their child development.
How to break difficult news
Here are some tips to help you address the news and current events to your little ones:
- Always consider the age of your child before opening up about the topic. Your child must be age-appropriate and must understand and comprehend the situation as it is.
Mikhail Nilov/ Pexels | Distressed behavior can take many forms, including aggression. anger, physical and verbal abuse
- Encourage your little ones to process the story through play and art as children try to understand what is going on in their minds through creative activities such as art. On some occasions, it can be pretty disturbing to see children reenact or draw something violent or scary, but it allows parents to understand where their child stands emotionally.
- You must maintain a calm and safe environment when discussing a complex topic. Children always look up to their parents and reflect their elders’ reactions as their own. If you stay calm and rational, the kids will too.
Pixabay/ Pexels | Children who are unable to express themselves often grow up as unhealthy adults
- Honesty is the key element to keep the situation under control. Start the discussion by laying out all the facts at a level they can easily understand. Filter out the necessary points that give too much detail that could put them in distress.
- Give your kid a safe space to open up, reflect and share. Share your feelings and ask them about theirs. Give your child a chance to see how a particular situation has upset you so they can learn to acknowledge their feelings and learn how to pull themselves together. In simpler words, you must be their role model even on emotional terms.
More in Health
-
`
Prince Harry’s Docuseries Talks About Mental Health – Another Blow to the Royal Family
It has been quite a few years for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. From stepping down as senior royals to their...
June 13, 2022 -
`
4 Essential Skills to Teach Your Kids During Quarantine
Parenting during a pandemic has proven to be hard, as voiced by most celebrity moms and dads. However, there are ways you can make...
June 13, 2022 -
`
Finding it Difficult to Clean Your Makeup Brushes? Here are Some Easy Tips!
Have you ever visited your favorite chef’s kitchen or your favorite painter’s workshop? While the end result they produce might be...
June 13, 2022 -
`
Kim Kardashian Was Convinced That Tristan Thompson Is a Changed Man After This Conversation
A man can change, right? This is what Kim Kardashian West thinksof Tristan Thompson, the man who cheated on her sister,...
June 13, 2022 -
`
Ariana Grande’s Latest Purchase Cost Millions of Dollars! Can You Guess What It Is?
While most of us are scrambling to find ways to kill boredom during this terrifying time, Ariana Grande has found a...
June 13, 2022 -
`
After Losing Her Billionaire Status, Kylie Jenner’s Business Empire in Deep Waters
Kylie Jenner is facing a lot of issues nowadays, although it isn’t apparent on her social media posts that usually show...
June 13, 2022 -
`
Sure-Fire Tricks to Be Happy & Successful at The Same Time
Up until 2020, the age-old “virus eating up the world” scenario was limited to fictional stories and movie scripts. But Coronavirus...
June 13, 2022 -
`
Ashton Kutcher Was Hospitalized Because of His Role as Steve Jobs – Here’s What Happened
Steve Jobs was a very mysterious and interesting individual. More than being a tech genius who founded Apple, the man was also...
June 13, 2022 -
`
Katy Perry Gets Rid of Her Beverly Hills Mansion for $7.5 Million – A Gain or A Loss?
Katy Perry is known to be one of the queens of pop music today, with much experience as a songwriter, singer,...
June 13, 2022
You must be logged in to post a comment Login