By: Laura Bennett
Has this new school year felt overwhelming? The shock of new routines, new teachers and managing family calendars can be exhausting.
The focus for a lot of parents is on wanting to set things up well for your kids, creating order in the chaos and being mindful in your role as mum or dad. Psychologist Collett Smart shares about processing the change of a new year, managing stressful emotions and how to be an undistracted parent. “A lot of our kids after the first weeks of school, will have a kind of decompression,” Collett said. When they get home “it will look like a meltdown for some kids, or they’ll have an outburst with their siblings, [but] we need to be a bit gentle with our kids and not take things personally as parents”. If you’re stressed at work and feeling the pressure professionally, while it’s OK “to be human and have bad days” parents need to “choose our language carefully”.
“It is our role as parents to kind of set the temperature at home,” Collett said. “Our children will bounce off what we feel, and what we bring into the atmosphere of the home, because kids are sponges – even teens. “They take on our emotions and our stressors.” With three kids aged 16, 21 and 23, Collett’s seen the influence technology has increasingly had on their lives, and on hers. “It’s natural to find distractions in our lives,” Collett said.
“While you’re on the sidelines of the sports field, for me it’s really fighting that urge to pick up my phone, or that urge to go and check something when I’m parenting. To remain present in your kids’ lives, Collett’s embraced the advice of one the experts appearing on Raising Teens. “I try as much as I can – and I’m not perfect at it – whenever I sense one of my children walk in [to a room] to look up from what I’m doing and engage with them,” Collett said. “I want to show that I’m noticing and that I’m here with you.”
Article supplied with thanks to Hope Media.
Feature image: Photo by sofatutor on Unsplash
About the Author: Laura Bennett is a media professional, broadcaster and writer from Sydney, Australia.