Dear Parents

Well meaning, loving and supportive parents can unwittingly contribute to their children’s anxiety

 When your child comes home from school with tales of mean girls, aggressive boys and insensitive teachers, remember that children feed off our emotions and can get more distressed when we’re distressed. We need to try to keep our own anxiety in check while sympathising with theirs. We have to be the emotional rock: the person who understands and supports.

 We all want to stand up for our children, but our eagerness to advocate can sometimes actually raise anxiety levels. If your child shares a school problem with you, your first instinct is often to march into the school and try to resolve it. This tells your children that you don’t have faith in them to fix their own problems. Your first priority should be to help them find a solution they can implement without your help, every time. 

Most of us get our confidence not from compensating for weaknesses, but on playing to our strengths. Children can’t always avoid their weak areas, but by focusing on strengths we build self-efficacy and confidence.

 Positive affirmation can easily turn to pressure. Compliment children when they excel, but don’t make their excellence a reason to expect even more from them.

Sometimes children make poor choices, and the thought of family finding out can seem like a fate worse than death. Let your children know that while values are important, you understand the realities and temptations they face. Don’t create a culture where your children are too anxious to come to you and admit they messed up. 

If we’re struggling financially or fighting with our spouse, we think our children are better off not knowing. But they suspect and if they don’t know the whole story, they can blow it out of all proportion. Should we pile our own troubles on our child’s shoulders? No, but it doesn’t hurt to be honest about what our concerns are and, more importantly, what we’re doing about it. By sharing what makes us anxious and how we deal with it, we’re modelling practical ways to resolve anxiety.

As you would be aware NAPLAN tests began this week and our school was selected to do the online version. There have been connectivity issues that have affected our school like many others across NSW. These faults are beyond our control, the education authorities have assured us they are doing everything possible to rectify these issues.

If you have real cocerns you can contact the NESA NAPLAN TEAM – 1300119556

Naplan.nsw@nesa.nsw.edu.au