UNICEF Kit Helps Children Talk about Natural Disasters
Floods, fire and earthquakes are events that many Australian and New Zealand children experience in their lifetime. And children all over the developing world also frequently experience trauma as a result of natural disasters. UNICEF Australia's chief executive officer, Dr Norman Gillespie, spoke about the recent Queensland and NSW floods and Tasmanian bushfires when releasing UNICEF's new information kit on talking to children about natural disasters. The kit can be downloaded for free. Read full article
Why BFFs - Best Friends 'Forever' - are Good for Children
Anyone helped through hard times by a close friend knows how much that support meant to them, but do close childhood friendships play an important role in long-term emotional development? Dr William Bukowski, Professor in the Department of Psychology at Concordia University, Canada, has researched how experiences with close peers affect a child’s social competence and wellbeing. His research indicates that friendships have a protective impact on our children’s emotional wellbeing by affecting how a child’s brain deals with stress immediately after a negative event. Read full article
Are You a Parent Juggling Too Many Tasks? Try This.
A few weeks ago I found myself a bit more disorganised than usual. Among a multitude of jobs I had to do was buying green things for my eight and five year olds to wear to school for St Patrick’s Day celebrations. I found myself standing in a shop asking myself what would be more inappropriate - sending them to school wearing plastic green glasses that look like jugs of beer, or a badge that says ‘Kiss me. I’m Irish’? Read full article
How Supportive Parenting Impacts Your Child's Brain
The importance of parental love and warmth to children’s emotional wellbeing is widely accepted. It makes sense that a loving childhood may protect children from developing mental illnesses later in life. A recent study by experts at Washington University illustrates why good parenting skills and parent wellbeing is so important that it can even affect the size of an important part of our brain – the hippocampus. Read full article
Is Parenting Stress Increasing for Mothers in Australia?
Adults who are not caring for children are frequently reported to be ‘happier’ than those with children at home. Considering the financial and emotional responsibilities of parenthood, this comparative happiness trend may be unsurprising; and it has been reconfirmed in a recent Stress and Wellbeing survey conducted by the Australian Psychological Society. Adding to what we know about parenting stress, the survey indicated that an increasing number of women are significantly stressed by financial worries and family issues ... So what are some of the more effective parent stress management tips? ... Read full article
How Children Teach and Learn Compassion
The past couple of weeks have been very stressful for me. A close family member has been ill, and the whole family has been thrown into disarray. When things are hard it’s easy to become irritable due to sleep deprivation, anxiety and sadness. It can be hard to maintain good judgement and even-temperedness. I felt angry at the unfairness in the world and felt my hackles rising when I heard any-one whinge about having been stuck in traffic or unable to find a parking spot. Thankfully I was able to keep my cool with my children and actually enjoyed doing simple things with them such as reading stories as a kind of stress-release. Being with them also reminded me of the good fortune in my life. Read full article
Reduce Stress Overload - Tips for Parents - Podcast
Dr Helen Street features in this one hour podcast about parents and stress. Yvette Vignando interviewed Dr Street about: How to incorporate stress management into your daily life; How to focus on and define what you can control; Understanding how flexible thinking can help you handle life's stressful events; and Strategies for looking after yourself Read full article
Life Overload - Immediate Life Saving Strategies from a Stress Expert
Overloaded? Overwhelmed? Overtired? Not enough time to enjoy life? Need to change but feel too busy to make a change? Read on...Are you the type of person who starts a new sentence before finishing the old one? Who can't sleep at night because the brain is ticking away with unfinished tasks? Who keeps working harder and harder only to have less and less spare time? Who is so busy 'doing' you have no time for 'living'? Then you may be suffering from life overload! If you are interested in regaining your sanity and living a happier, less stressful life then "Life Overload" is for you. Read full article
How to Care for Children After a Traumatic Event - Christchurch Earthquake
“I don’t like big erfquakes, They’re stupid!!” exclaims almost three year old Marco, now a veteran of two major earthquakes and living with his parents and older brother in Christchurch, New Zealand. Since September 2010 when the first major earthquake hit the ‘Garden City’ of New Zealand, Marco has labelled every run down building or scaffolding in the street as “Look at that big erfquake” and on the day prior to the February 2011 earthquake in Christchurch, his house was burgled – his first reaction “an erfquake.” Read full article
Christchurch Earthquake 2011 - Grief, Media and My Family
Last week was a quiet week for blogging and writing on happychild. I was distracted. My brother, his wife and their two little boys live in Christchurch New Zealand. They are fortunate and we are relieved – they are safe and their house has only minor damage. ... Since September, many people in Christchurch have continued to feel anxious and stressed and this has been compounded by the frequent aftershocks that jolt them out of temporary distraction, and remind them that they’re living with risk. Read full article
