If you walk through your local store, it’s obvious that it’s back-to-school season. The stores are filled with school supply sales and aisles of gear to make the school year a success. There’s just one thing missing: a full understanding of what to expect when school starts back up again thanks to the still ongoing pandemic. When you don’t know what to expect, it’s hard to prepare your kids mentally and emotionally for the challenges of the new year.
Take the time to find out as much as you can about what school will look like for your child this year and then listen to their fears. From there, you’ll want to help them find a success story from their past as you talk to them about going back to school this year.
Get as much information as you can first, before having the conversation with your child
Remind them of how they overcame challenges before
After listening to their concerns, you will want to help them develop the confidence to tackle an unknown scenario. Chances are they have overcome a challenging period before. Reminding them of that story is one way to help them tap into that feeling.
“One way to help give kids confidence about new ways of doing things is to remind them of stories from their own lives when they were able to make a change to something new," licensed family therapist Raffi Bilek suggested to Mom.com.
"Don't just give the moral of the story — tell the whole thing over to them," Bilek said. He said your conversation may go something like this: "Remember the time we moved to a new house? We were all a little bit nervous about what that would be like! And we packed up everything in those big brown boxes? You helped put the books away." Bilek said, "Give details, images — make it a story and not a lesson.”
By making it a story, you help your child revisit some of the scary components and realize that they were capable of meeting and beating the challenge.
