We do not hesitate to talk to our children about their physical health. Is it time to talk to them with the same comfort and about their mental health?

In the next 3 minutes you will learn:
-What to do with your child.
- What is the right opportunity.

With more and more people sharing their concerns about mental health, wellness and self-care, this may be the starting point for having open, honest discussions with each other and with our children.

Research in recent years, especially during the pandemic period, shows high rates of anxiety and difficult emotions in children from 12 years old with the numbers rising to 16 years old. By taking the time to talk to children about their feelings and challenges, we can help them understand more about their emotional state and mental health, as well as recognize the signs when they are having difficulty.

Recognizing that we need to have such discussions can go a long way toward doing so if we do not know how to talk about sensitive issues in a calm, honest, and confident way so that children feel comfortable talking and asking for help.

Let's look at some ideas and ways to open these topics:

1. Do a group activity

It does not matter what the activity will be as long as it pleases both of them. Cooking, painting, walking… anything that will give you the opportunity to connect, relax, talk and make the child feel comfortable to open up. This relaxed approach can create opportunities for conversations about self-care, relaxation and stress.

2. Help them recognize their feelings

Accept and name the child's feelings without necessarily trying to find a solution to their problem or forcing them to feel better. Knowing that someone is by my side and understands how I feel can in itself have a positive effect. Children often can not understand the emotions that overwhelm them, so try to name the emotion and let them know that it is acceptable to feel that way.

3. Tell a relevant story

Mental health is an important part of our lives and children need to learn to accept both pleasant and difficult emotions. To help them in a comprehensible and digestible way, tell them a story about how they feel or why someone might behave differently. A nice exercise can be to paint the emotions, or to make a weekly diary of emotions that you will complete together.

4. Choose the right opportunity

Keep your conversations short and to the point. Do not set the stage for this. But take advantage of the route in the car, your lunch or when you watch TV together. Talk about hypothetical situations, experiences, or people such as a character from the movie you are watching, rather than asking direct questions about the subject.