The Wellbeing Page 

Dr Becky

Have you heard of Dr Becky?

She is a clinical psychologist, author and mum. 

She has amazing resources and tips for parents. Her social media is a fantastic tool, too. The great thing about these resources is that they are useful for both teachers and parents - perhaps because we are all working towards the same goal. How great would it be if we are all talking a consistent language when it comes to caring for and educating our children?

Here is a piece from Dr Becky on developing resilience:

Let’s replace the idea of protecting our kids from hard truths and hard feelings with PREPARING our kids from hard truths and hard feelings. 

Why? 

Well let’s look forward to our kids’ adulthood.

I don’t know one adult who says this to me: "My parents helped me avoid all the hard things in the world" and guess what? Now as an adult, I am an EXPERT at avoiding hard things and hard feelings! 

I do know many adults who struggle with this: My parents stepped in so fast and I was always ‘protected’ from the tough moments in life… and as a result, I was totally unprepared for hard things in adulthood. 

It’s as if I hadn’t built any of the coping skills for life and so I was starting, in adulthood, at a place that was no different than early childhood.

We can’t build coping skills for feelings and experiences we haven’t gone through. 

This is, in a way, what childhood is all about: kids go through hard things and hopefully have loving trusted adults who are there for them, who face the truth, and who - through their supportive presence - help them see that hard times feel hard AND can be weathered.

Now, let me be clear: am I saying you should talk to your 2 year old about world wars or flood your 6 year old with violent images from the news? 

Of course not! 

What I am saying is we need to rethink the idea of “protecting” our kids - when we lie, avoid the truth, or swoop in too fast, we really aren’t protecting them at all; so let’s think instead about preparing our kids. 

When they’re older, they’ll be so grateful to us for this mindset shift.

If these ideas don’t come “naturally” to you - it makes sense. 

Raising kids is the hardest job in the world and comes with no training, no manual, we're just expected to figure it out.⭐️ 

Parents deserve resources. Parents deserve support.

Here is a video about what kids need - they have a great discussion on resilience at 21m:07s