How emotional wellbeing impacts your children

Emotional wellbeing is the full range of emotions, behavior, ideas, and relationships of a person. Good emotional wellbeing means being able to regulate and express their emotions, feelings, and thoughts well; better manage stress; have a sense of meaning and purpose in life; and maintain positive relationships. Improving emotional wellbeing can also improve mental and physical health.

Normalize emotions

Emotions are natural and it is okay to feel them - in fact, it is important to do so. Accepting and not judging emotions when they come up builds the capacity for a child to work through them and learn how to regulate and control them. However, it is important to communicate to a child that what is not okay is acting out on their emotions in an unhealthy way, such as yelling or hitting. 

Good emotional wellbeing requires ongoing attention and care

Learning to take care of themselves and developing empathy is crucial to a child’s growth and education. Teaching children to recognize, manage, and express their emotions in a healthy way can positively affect their life.

When children recognize and communicate their feelings, their path to learning and developing the skills they need to succeed becomes much smoother.

Be patient and vulnerable to encourage your children to talk

Sometimes your child may struggle to talk about their feelings, but it doesn’t mean they don’t want to. Young people may have a hard time trusting and opening up to adults. Other times, they might feel a sense of loyalty to friends and not want to talk about a particular subject that involves them.

The best thing you can do is to gently and patiently create the space for them to talk to you. It might help to be open and talk about how certain situations can make you feel. Helping your child relate to you can help them trust and want to open up more.