HURRIED PARENT, STRESSED FAMILY

HURRIED PARENT, STRESSED FAMILY –PANDEMIC EDITION

Melanie Crosby Hardy, Family Engagement Region Representative, Region 4

Family and School Partnerships Office of Professional Learning & Family Engagement

Tonight’s Learning Goals

❖ Discuss reasons we hurry and the connection between hurrying and stress

❖ Identify symptoms of a stressed family

❖ Explore the effects of stress on families and children

❖ Discover ways to increase children’s resilience to stress

❖ Consider ways to cope with stress as a family

Why Do We Hurry – Even During a Pandemic When

We Literally Can’t Go Anywhere?

We are afraid to NOT hurry.

Why Do We Hurry?

Fear Factors:

• Fear of failure – as a parent, spouse/friend, employee

• Fear of losing the competition

• Fear of getting behind

• Fear of missing out or kids missing out

When Hurrying Can Hurt

Is Your “Hurried” Family Stressed?

❖ Constant sense of urgency

❖ Sense that time is passing too quickly

❖ Underlying tension that gives rise to misunderstandings

❖ Mania to escape

❖ Constant longing for simpler life

❖ Ongoing sense of guilt for not being all things to all people

Children Feel Stress Too!

❖ School success

❖ Family worries

❖ Peer pressures

❖ The world

❖ The future

❖ Responsibility overload

❖ Change overload

❖ Emotional overload

❖ Information overload

Effects of “Hurrying” on Children

Children’s Reactions to StressPhysical Symptoms:

• Nightmares• Insomnia• Stomachaches• Feeling sick• Headaches• Butterflies or knots in

tummy• Rapid heartbeat• Feeling very tired• Dizziness• Nausea• Sweaty palms• Shaky hands or knees

Behavioral Symptoms:

• Withdrawing• Fighting• Daydreaming a lot• Biting nails• Trouble sleeping• Crying easily• Trouble concentrating• Distracted in school• Sucking thumb

Ways to Increase a Child’s Resilience to Stress

1. Make home a safe and structured place.

2. Build social competence.

Ways to Increase a Child’s Resilience to Stress

3. Encourage problem-solving and independence.

Ways to Increase a Child’s Resilience to Stress

4. Reinforce the process, not just the product.

Ways to Increase a Child’s Resilience to Stress

5. Respond to your child’s feelings and help him/her identify them talk about them.

Ways to Increase a Child’s Resilience to Stress

6. Allow children time for unstructured play.

Ways to Increase a Child’s Resilience to Stress

7. Appreciate your child’s uniqueness.

Ways to Increase a Child’s Resilience to Stress

Coping with Stress as a Family

❖ Expect stress and accept your limitations.

❖ Focus on strengths.

❖ Let go of competition.

❖ Budget time like money, and set priorities.

❖ Schedule time for self, spouse, kids, friends, and fun.

Coping with Stress as a Family

❖ Work at exiting the work and spend cycle.

❖ Get organized to work smarter not harder.

❖ Analyze the times when you find yourself hurrying and ask why you’re doing so.

❖ Continually examine the questions of what and who are important in your life, and focus on what really matters!

Family and School Partnerships

Office of Professional Learning and Family Engagement

www.fcps.edu

Search “family engagement”