One child may be easier to handle than the other, and it may be easy to get along with one child and impossible to do the same with another.
This is just the normal complexity of life, and each parent knows that one child is different from the other and while one may be able to face a difficult situation with ease, another may have to be taught to do so.
Here are some tips on how a parent can teach his child to deal with stress effectively:
1. Be aware of your child’s talents and his abilities. Know that each child has a different ability and everyone may not be able to excel at everything. If your child happens to lose interest in one activity, do not force him to continue; he will never do well at it if he is bored with it.
Instead, find other interests and engage him in them, so that he is always interested in what he is doing. Also, teach your child that failure is the stepping stone to success, and that unless he encounters failure head on, he may not be able to taste the fruits of success.
2. Keep the channel of good communication between your child and you open at any given time. Make your child aware that he can approach you with anything at all, if he wants to or chooses to.
3. Give your child responsibilities that he will be able to complete. This will give him a tremendous sense of achievement, and will also teach him to be a responsible person as he grows up.
The job of completing a given task will also teach him how to plan and organize, and therefore, how to manage stress.
4. Teach your child how to approach a problem in a positive manner. Humor must form a part and parcel of everyday life, and when your child learns to laugh at his mistakes, he would have learnt how to deal with stress in the most effective manner possible.
5. Engage your child in several outdoor activities; fresh air has never done anyone any harm, and when your child learns to integrate exercise into his daily routine, he would have learnt also to deal with stress, because it is a proven fact that physical exercise is a great stress buster.
Today, stress has overtaken many of us and has affected our lifestyles dramatically. If a child can be taught how to handle stress when he is young, he will be able to deal with it in a sure and confident manner when he is an adult with responsibilities of his own.
