Parenting boys – safeguard their Mental Health
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A post about boys and their wellbeing. As a working mum to a 13 year old boy I am becoming increasingly aware of how tricky it can be to have those chats with him to help him safeguard his mental health and develop his psychological resilience.
Sadly it seems that boys are still so often pressured by their peers and society to be tough, to hide their emotions, to appear strong. Boys and young men tend to internalise their anxieties and troubles.
As a society we can do more to educate them that #resilience is developed when we accept what we are
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dealing with, expressing it and making sense of it. Not burying it somewhere deep inside. This always fails as it builds and comes up to bite.
It is not easy to get our boys to talk – being on holiday of course is a great opportunity to speak loads and connect – but making open, accepting space for them anyway, any-day to vent and release their worries is good for their #mentalhealth and their overall sense of having agency, a valid sense of self and an understanding of the emotional world.
Relationships are deepened when we are open and share
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our authentic experiences. So we can help our boys get the best out of their life and their significant others.
Here are some practical tips to make it ok and easy for them to talk:
✨1. Let them talk when it is quiet, and they have your undivided attention
✨2. Listen. Do not judge, suppress, correct, fix.
✨3. Tell them you want to know what it is like for them to be them. Reassure them they are strong to share and release their feelings. Often boys feel that they don’t want to burden their parents with more worries.
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Tell them that it is more important to you to know them and what is going on for them.
✨4. Normalise their feelings and educate them that it is absolutely ok for them to feel what they do .
✨5. Recognise your limits. If they need professional help to reduce #anxiety #fear #confusion #stress #depression get it for them. You can’t solve everything. Some issues will be beyond you and it is not your fault if things are a bit too tricky to address.
✨6. Help them to be #selfcompassionate and #selfloving treating yourself
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kindly is the number one ingredient in #mentalhealthrecovery . Model this whenever you can.
Let’s do this!
We can #breakthestigma and educate our lovely boys to reflect, share, accept and navigate their emotional world safely and honestly!
If you need help or got any questions DM me. You can also find me on instagram @dr_chloe_psychology
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Dr Chloe Paidoussis-Mitchell - 12 Aug 18
A post about boys and their wellbeing. As a working mum to a 13 year old boy I am becoming increasingly aware of how tricky it can be to have those chats with him to help him safeguard his mental health and develop his psychological resilience.
Sadly it seems that boys are still so often pressured by their peers and society to be tough, to hide their emotions, to appear strong. Boys and young men tend to internalise their anxieties and troubles.
As a society we can do more to educate them that #resilience is developed when we accept what we are dealing with, expressing it and making sense of it. Not burying it somewhere deep inside. This always fails as it builds and comes up to bite.
It is not easy to get our boys to talk – being on holiday of course is a great opportunity to speak loads and connect – but making open, accepting space for them anyway, any-day to vent and release their worries is good for their #mentalhealth and their overall sense of having agency, a valid sense of self and an understanding of the emotional world.
Relationships are deepened when we are open and share our authentic experiences. So we can help our boys get the best out of their life and their significant others.
Here are some practical tips to make it ok and easy for them to talk:
✨1. Let them talk when it is quiet, and they have your undivided attention
✨2. Listen. Do not judge, suppress, correct, fix.
✨3. Tell them you want to know what it is like for them to be them. Reassure them they are strong to share and release their feelings. Often boys feel that they don’t want to burden their parents with more worries. Tell them that it is more important to you to know them and what is going on for them.
✨4. Normalise their feelings and educate them that it is absolutely ok for them to feel what they do .
✨5. Recognise your limits. If they need professional help to reduce #anxiety #fear #confusion #stress #depression get it for them. You can’t solve everything. Some issues will be beyond you and it is not your fault if things are a bit too tricky to address.
✨6. Help them to be #selfcompassionate and #selfloving treating yourself kindly is the number one ingredient in #mentalhealthrecovery . Model this whenever you can.
Let’s do this!
We can #breakthestigma and educate our lovely boys to reflect, share, accept and navigate their emotional world safely and honestly!
If you need help or got any questions DM me. You can also find me on instagram @dr_chloe_psychology
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