How to Comfort Children’s Sad Hearts
Helping your child in sadness can be the most difficult part, especially if they have shut themselves out. Whether it is the death of a dear one, a major event, or perhaps related to their friends, you always need to be there through thick and thin to acknowledge their problems and help them get past them.
Unfortunately, some kids overcome such emotional stress in an unhealthy way. Instead of confronting it or relaxing, they let the sadness take over their lives and affect everyone at home. If you are finding yourself helpless, here are the top 7 best ways to comfort your children’s sad hearts.
1.Seek Professional Help
This is especially needed when you are sure your child is suffering from depression. Seeking professional help can help her connect with like-minded people and get out of her usual environment to face the problem.
However, she might not feel like going for the first few times with daily visits and a friendly psychiatrist. Letting all of her flow out would be the initial 0step towards recovery in a healthy way.
2.Tell her what is normal what isn’t
There are times when your child is having difficulty in figuring out what they should or should not do. If it’s a healthy emotion perceived as negative, it will tend to worsen your child’s condition as they are also guilty for showcasing such sadness.
For instance, crying or being angry is something you can expect your child to show during sadness. Tell them that they can cry as much as they want but not eating food and locking themselves in the room is unhealthy. Being angry is okay, but hitting is not.
You can play the role of a friend and empathize with your kid and be the parent to tell them what is harmful. This will help them distinguish bad emotions from good ones. Besides that, they will be more willing to open up to you if they are also stuck in figuring out this dilemma.
3.Have them adjust to a new normal
This is one thing that drags your child back to sadness every time they are trying to overcome it. If your child lost a loved one, help them adjust to the new normal. Teach them that life will never stay the same, and they should accept to move on. Don’t try to think of replacing the lost one. Considering how they are more sensitive than usual, they will think of you as the enemy here. As a result, they will stop opening up to you.
After a considerable amount of space, try changing things up by going on a holiday or shifting to a new place if that’s what it takes. Being gentle towards them helps them change their perspective by being grateful for their things rather than grieving on the things they don’t. And the only way to be happy again is to adjust to a new life and take a step forward in life.
4.Don’t try to change their emotions
Let’s admit it; this is where parents make a mistake. Understandably, it’s hard to see your kid down at all times. However, do not try to change their emotions immediately. If you pull them away while they need grief and accept the change, it could stifle them. If you stop them from doing it or downplay their emotions, they are likely to do that for the rest of their lives.
As a result, it will make it harder to cope with sadness and elongate the process of overcoming it.
5.Watch the silence
If your children aren’t aware of such sadness before, they most likely don’t know what is happening to them. They are more likely to stay silent since they don’t know how to react either. Here, the worst thing you can do is to ignore it, thinking everything is fine. Check with them and help them figure out a way to understand their emotions and overcome them.
There is a solid possibility that your child will be reluctant to open up here; you can try being vulnerable first to cut out the barriers and lay a foundation for them to open up. Make sure not to guess their feelings, rather allow them to reflect on the cause and figure out themselves. It helps to build self-awareness and gives them a sense of independence to deal with the pain. However, you can tell them it is okay to feel this way and give them space to find their peace again.
6.Developing a Positive Mindset
If you are sure that your child is not depressed and doesn’t need professional counseling, start by shifting their mind into a positive light. There is always a negative and positive side to a loss. You can be that energetic parent and encourage your child to have a positive mindset. Instead of seeing the glass half empty, make them see the half-full side of the glass.
For kids who are just starting the journey of life, it can be hard to accept that not everything can go according to their wishes. Try to avoid giving them examples of your own sadness or compare them to the rest since it gives a sense of downplaying their sadness. Remember, your child thinks she is going through something no one has gone through. Try pulling them off of this perspective without downplaying.
How?
Listen attentively when they are talking about their issue. Ask questions that will help them see the side they have never before. Sympathize with their grief and acknowledge the loss. Later, pull them off by asking them to look at life anew and start a new journey with the lost memories. You can also help shift their focus on doing other tasks and bring their life back together by keeping them busy with usual chores and having a normal life.
7.Ask them the lesson gained from the sadness
Always create a mindset that it is either victory or a lesson, never failure. If they have lost something, ask them what they learned as this is how they will thrive. They also allow solving the overlooked aspects associated with sadness.
All in all, you can count on other fun and claiming ways of uplifting your child with the helpful guides from Kids Play Boxes [https://kidsplayboxes.com/] that can make your parenthood a lot easier.