We can talk about it!

Help me avoid this STRESS!!!

Stress is a part of all of our daily lives, however what usually makes us or breaks us is how we deal with our stress. We may not realize it but sometimes the stress that we deal with daily can be transfered over to our children. I was watching the news one day and they were doing a story called "Is anybody listening?" It was about a group of children in a California school who were feeling stressed because they saw what their parents were going through in these tough econimic times. Their teacher bought a camcorder to class and let them sit down and talk about what they were going through in thier lives. Many of the children broke down and cried explianing how it bothered them to see their parents struggle to make ends meet or pay their mortgages. Many of the parents didn't know that their children felt this way because they had never talked about it. One thing that we must always keep in mind as parents is that our children are watching and listen even when we think that they are not. That is why I always try to promote some kind of conversation, just so that we can kind of get a feel of what's on our childrens minds. A part of good parenting is protecting our children from seen and unseen danger, even if that danger is residing within us. Let me use an example that many of us can probably relate to. I grew up in a poor family with five other siblings, I never realized that we were poor until I became an adult. (Kudos to my parents.) While growing up I never witnessed, or maybe I just didn't pay it any attention, my parents struggling or fight over bills. Now im sure that this probably did take place, however they did everything in their power not to make it the childrens concern, in other words all I had to be worried about was being a kid and making good grades in school. Being a child in today's world carries a bit more youthful stress than in my younger day's. But there's one thing that we must keep in mind if we are to be good stuarts over our children, And that is we must do everything that we can to keep our stress out of their young lives.