Before motherhood, I was entirely carefree. I don’t usually worry about so many things at all. I don’t care about the ideas like jumping out of a plane, leaving for another country, or spending time in a deserted place. I believe that I’m emotionally and mentally capable of handling all of the negative things that can come my way. But after giving birth, everything becomes entirely different. I am now more stressed, and I feel like anxiety and depression are taking over my life. Having a baby changed the whole course of my mental and emotional capacity.

The Consistent Mental And Emotional Struggle

Motherhood changed my perspective on a lot of things. I became more sensitive and out of control. Yes, it is a beautiful feeling to have a child that you can love and take care of the rest of your life. But what’s creeping up on me is the idea of not being able to provide my baby all the necessary things that promote better development. I often got scared of not always being there for my child, so I preferably avoid getting busy with other stuff. I feel anxious about unrealistic things that I picture might happen anytime I’m out of sight. There are times that I understand the situation and I know that things are not that bad in some instances. But, every time I think about how small and fragile a newborn is, I immediately feel the terror inside my core. I then assume that something is going to happen. I locked my thoughts with a lot of “what ifs.” These include the idea of my baby’s interrupted breathing, physical movements, loud cries, as well as silent gestures. There is tremor thinking that something would prevent me from watching and caring for my child.

Am I paranoid? Is this post-partum depression? Well, I guess that’s what you can call it. All I can see is danger everywhere in everything that surrounds my child. The list of things that now scares me is endless. Most of that is a bit ridiculous, unreasonable, and seems impossible to happen. I suddenly developed a lot of fear which I don’t previously have. That includes the turning off of lights where it suddenly becomes so freaking scary. And to add more, I started to watch out and be careful about everything I do and say in front of my baby because I believe that it creates an impact on the child’s development. People have no idea that I began having issues with clinginess. They don’t know I am currently devastated and afraid of being alone with my child. I felt tortured and immobilized.

 

All these emotional and mental states I am at are the most dreadful feeling I ever had. When I continuously think about it or say it out loud, it gives me a heavy feeling on my chest. It felt awful and scary. And when these thoughts began to work their way on creating a more specified adverse scenario in my head, it can make me cry non-stop. Yes, I worried too much about things I know I shouldn’t. But, I could not seem to help it. It is something I still couldn’t quite handle and explain. I can only describe the sensation as dullness and heaviness in all aspects of my overall health. Yes, I already recognized that I am suffering from a mental health condition and the anxiety has entirely stopped me from enjoying other beautiful things around me. But still, I knew that the ongoing process of recovery could take a while.

What I Learned From The Experience

Before having a baby, I entirely don’t understand the impact of fear, constant worry, and panic attacks. I can say that I lived my life based on exploring fun and excitement. But now, I’m living in a world where I can’t find the right answers to my psychological and emotional dilemma. Do I regret having a child? Well, of course not. It may sound strange to say this, provided that I intentionally wrote the negativity of my emotional and mental state, but motherhood is an incredible thing that ever happened to me. As a mother, it became my reality.

Last week, we spoke to a woman who used to get sheltered too much by her parents, to the extent that she was only allowed to watch TV at home, and nothing else. Riding a bike was a no-no because mom did not want her to scrape her legs. Dad was quite strict about studying, saying young kids should focus on it even on the weekends to have a better future. Hence, the woman could not remember a day when she was able to play outdoors like the other children in the neighborhood.

That is unacceptable, frankly speaking, since pediatric specialists keep on seeing that their patients who have started battling a mental disorder early happen to be the kids who never commune with nature. They stay indoors most of the time, playing video games or merely staring at the corners of the house. While their friends are hanging out at the park or a friend’s house, they end up not even getting some sun for days. If you must know, this lack of socialization and vitamin D deficiency often push people down the depression lane.

The fact mentioned above does not make over-sheltering kids seem so ideal now, does it? Your children may not get influenced or bullied by others, they won’t ever be at risk of being in an accident, but the prolonged stay indoors affects their mental health adversely.

Let us give you a few more reasons not to let your kids stay cooped up at home.

1. It Stimulates The Senses

Being in nature more often typically makes a child’s senses sharper than ever. They get to play with soil, feel the grass under their feet, smell the flowers, see bugs and explore other things that can occur outdoors. These are the things that they can only understand in theory or through descriptions in books if you don’t allow them to go outside.

2. It Enhances Cognitive Skills

The environment consists mainly of living things that grow and wither. As said earlier, there may also be creatures or plant species that may switch on the curious side of the kids and cause them to observe what they do, what their colors are, and how big they become. That can improve their thinking skills better than tuning into National Geographic at home.

3. It Relieves Stress

In case you have not fathomed it before, children can acquire stress from the activities they need to accomplish every day. For instance, they got to wake up at six in the morning when there’s school, participate in class discussions until around three in the afternoon, and still have dinner and do their homework before resting at night. If such kids don’t go out once in a while, they won’t have an outlet for their stress.

4. It Builds Up Creativity

It is best to take the young ones to a natural park that does not have slides and swings, to be honest. With the man-made playthings on site, after all, it seems automatic for children to know how they should play. However, if they are in an open field with some huge trees, it will enable them to use their imagination and create different games on their own.

Final Thoughts

Depression and anxiety are two of the most common disorders that kids as young as three years old can develop. They tend to isolate themselves from youngsters their age and, worse, even attempt to self-harm at times. If you don’t want your child to be part of the statistics, though, it matters to encourage him or her to leave the house sometimes and play outdoors like the others to boost their mental health.

Good luck!

 

 

Parenting is a much-underrated subject that most people avoid discussing. Since raising a child in this world and at this very moment is stressful, parents should learn the essential ways to incorporate discipline in their parenting. Hopefully, these tips will at least get them started in thinking about proper child parenting.

Most parents’ goal is to do parenting well. As much as possible, they want to avoid giving kids’ lessons, hope they get through life struggles and wish everything turns out okay. But these things don’t happen in an instant that’s why there’s a need for guidance and experience-based learning. The need to have a default response is essential at times since most parents don’t have an idea where to start.

Parenting Tips

• Consider following a parenting plan where you should be able to understand the importance of advance thinking. The people that need to be involved in your kids’ lives and how they can influence them are still part of your job.

 

 

• Set goals and boundaries as to what you want your kids to achieve in life whether in school, community or even at home. Help your children to continue to grow and encourage them to step out on their independence by following exact boundaries. Cultivate their knowledge and skills so they would know their function in the world they are living in.

 

• Always remember that you are the parent. Children will reach the age where they think they can handle almost everything. It will create a complication once they assume they know more than you do as a parent. Instead of allowing kids to demand their rights, you as a parent will still need to be a tone-setter inside the home.

 

• Make kids understand that you’re the one that should lead and guide them in their life choices. And when certain expectations aren’t met, let them know that consequences and punishments are inevitable. Make sure that you make it very clear to the children that it is your responsibility to take care of them and they have to follow the rules.

 

• Listening to your children is necessarily essential. Since their developmental stage is prone to confusions and curiosity, always be there to guide them and make them understand. Help them to figure out what they can do, what they want, and whoever they want to be. Try to support their ideas and build a lasting relationship with them. Show the kids’ value, listen to them, and create a meaningful conversation.

 

• Even if you can decide for your kids, you need to allow them to express themselves. Be open to the idea of how they understand different situations. Don’t lock them in a box where there’s only right or wrong. Allow them to respond to their surroundings with their understanding. This way, you can help them build confidence and self-worth. Encourage your kids to develop the emotional, physical, and mental capabilities.

 

 

No one said that parenting was easy. It creates stress and a lot of work. But if you put in mind that what you do is beneficial for your child’s overall development, you’ll realize that your contribution matters.

 

Every time a baby whines, we immediately stand on our feet and find means to soothe them. Are parents too ready to give in to their baby’s wants? The thought of disciplining an infant is just so hard after all they are just tiny helpless humans?

Continue reading “Four Things That You Are Spoiling Your Baby” →

Bullying is one of the significant issues faced by students nowadays. Bully is an unwanted and aggressive behavior done by an individual usually a child or teen through real or perceived power imbalance like popularity, physical strength and access to embarrassing information to control and harm classmates or kids. It includes anything simple like spreading malicious rumors to physical aggression and even sexual assault. In essence, bullying is an abusive use of power. Studies show that even at a young age, children also seek the feeling of being in control and powerful. Often, bullies were at one point powerless in their life and realized that power is the better end of the stick. Abusing power through bullying can be addictive just like a potent drug. Another possible reason is the bully is hurting, and he used intimidation as a maladaptive defense mechanism. 

Provide a compassion and respectful relationship since the child is small.Parents are advised by experts to teach their children about bullying and how to handle such situations. Since whether we like it or not, children might experience bullying at one point in their life. The goal is not to bully-proof your child’s life but instead provide support to help him develop awareness and skill to protect himself and seek help. Research revealed the bullying could start in preschool and increases as kids grow. In general, surveys reveal that about 40 to 80 percent of school-age children participate in bullying behavior which shows the bullying is already ingrained in the school culture. Many children stated that they were subjected to bullying but also bullied others at one point. With these findings, experts recommended culture of school transformation, conflict resolution training, and restorative justice circles. Despite the efforts of school administration, it is still a struggle to curb the problem of bullying. The parents then equip their kids on how to stand up against bullying behavior.

The best way to prevent bullying and to be a bully is to provide a loving and respectful environment for the child. Do not use physical violence to punish and to solve conflicts since research has supported that it is associated with bullying behaviors.

Communicate with your child no matter what, and often kids are embarrassed to admit that they are being bullied. Always remember to have a good relationship with your child. Prioritize your relationship with your child more than anything.

Show confidence

Show your child that you don’t back down quickly just to avoid making a scene. Experiment ways on how to assert your rights respectfully. Remember your child is learning from you and his surroundings.

Teach your child respectful self-assertion.

Practice with your child’s words and phrases to say when somebody is bullying him or taking advantage of him. Examples are:

“It’s my turn to play now.”

“Please stop that.”

“Take your hands off me.”

“I don’t like being called that. I want you to address me by my name.”

Just when you thought you’re done suffering from your child’s terrible twos stage, parents soon realize that preschool years are not exactly a walk in the park. As the preschooler expands his/her independence, he will develop a new set of behavioral problems. Take these changes as regular part of growing up and accept misbehavior as a learning process to realize the consequences of breaking the rules, and as time goes by, your preschooler will turn out wiser and more prepared for decision making. Experts gather and discussed the most common preschooler behavioral problems and how can parents address these issues.

Continue reading “Preschoolers’ Behavioral Problems and How To Handle Them” →

People call them terrible twos for something. Have you found yourself in the negotiation table with none other than your 2-year-old over wearing the queen Elsa dress in class picture day? Have you experienced the judgmental stares from everybody in the supermarket when your child was throwing tantrums?  

Continue reading “Dealing With Self-Asserting Toddlers” →