NANA SAYS HOW DO WE TEACH RESILIENCE IN CHILDREN

Reading a short article recently by Michelle Horton on helping children through traumatic events, the concept of resilience was discussed. As parents and grandparents we can not protect our children from traumatic situations. Life happens. Helping children to navigate their concerns helps. The experts say good parenting that includes empathy, unconditional love and honest acceptance are key factors. Parents and grandparents and other family members like close aunts or uncles must model resiliency. Check out your library or bookstore for books on the subject if you need more reading. As a professional social worker being available in crisis situations for individuals and families, providing guidance on next steps and where to go for further help, can be first steps in setting up resiliency. People can become stuck in their grief or misfortunes in life. How to navigate from those situations to positive living and learn from the situations. Sometimes being in a hole teaches us we do not want to be there for very long. Allowing all feelings from sad to mad to glad can be raging simultaneously. For example, if a child loses a parent at a young age, the parent has been lost for the lifetime. So be available at different times of the person's life as grief can resurface periodically. Like at a graduation, a wedding or a first baby! Resiliency is a huge topic so I will write more at another time.