Talk to your kids about difficulties you might be having and assure them that you are working to make things alright. Enlist them to help - they typically want to be involved. Give them simple things to do (e.g. don't run the water while brushing teeth, turn lights off when you leave a room). Use Ms. Schellenbarger's article as a guide for your conversations and, if you still don't believe that involving your kids is important, look at they study she cites about the importance of focusing on the family in times of distress. Your problems are your family's problems. Face them together as a family.
Showing posts with label sue schellenbarger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sue schellenbarger. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Financial Distress? Focus on Family
"I don't want my kids to be stressed about our financial situation. They're too young." One mom said this to me at a recent event and because it has become such a common refrain, I felt that I needed to highlight a post I made about Sue Schellenbarger's WSJ article last September. It's even more relevant today. Many families are in serious financial distress and a common reaction to this is to shield the kids. This is virtually impossible to do. Your kids are going to feel your stress and if you don't explain to them what's going on, they'll make their own leaps.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
When Tough Times Affect the Kids
Read Sue Schellenbarger's article in the Wall Street Journal today. She has some terrific points about how we can talk to our kids about how the current financial crisis is affecting our families.
Here's a snippet:
"A 20-year study of 450 families with school-age children who were hit by a deep Farm Belt recession in the 1980s shows the psychological impact on kids can be signifcant and enduring. Rand Conger...at the University of California, Davis, and others, found financial woes often fueled anxiety, depression, behavior problems and poorer peer relationships in kids...The most successful families in Dr. Conger's study were those who 'managed to keep their priorities on the family itself,' remaining close and working together to solve problems, he says. To his surprise, kids didn't seem to mind that they lacked spending money."
-John
Here's a snippet:
"A 20-year study of 450 families with school-age children who were hit by a deep Farm Belt recession in the 1980s shows the psychological impact on kids can be signifcant and enduring. Rand Conger...at the University of California, Davis, and others, found financial woes often fueled anxiety, depression, behavior problems and poorer peer relationships in kids...The most successful families in Dr. Conger's study were those who 'managed to keep their priorities on the family itself,' remaining close and working together to solve problems, he says. To his surprise, kids didn't seem to mind that they lacked spending money."
-John
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