Each day, 10-year-old Seth asked his mom for more and more lunch money. Yet he seemed skinnier than ever and came home from school hungry. It turned out that Seth was handing his lunch money to a fifth-grader, who was threatening to beat him up if he didn’t pay.

Kayla, 13, thought things were going well at her new school, since all the popular girls were being so nice to her. But then she found out that one of them had posted mean rumors about her on a website. Kayla cried herself to sleep that night and started going to the nurse’s office complaining of a stomachache to avoid the girls in study hall.

Unfortunately, the kind of bullying that Seth and Kayla experienced is widespread. In national surveys, most kids and teens say that bullying happens at school.

A bully can turn something like going to the bus stop or recess into a Continue reading »

As providers and caretakers, adults tend to view the world of children as happy and carefree. After all, kids don’t have jobs to keep or bills to pay, so what could they possibly have to worry about?

Plenty! Even very young children have worries and feel stress to some degree. Stress is a function of the demands placed on us and our ability to meet them.

Sources of Stress

Pressures often come from outside sources (such as family, friends, or school), but they can also come from within. The pressure we place on ourselves can be most significant because there is often a discrepancy between what we think we ought to be doing and what we are actually doing in Continue reading »

We all spend time in front of the mirror — dressing, grooming, or checking our appearance. This is especially true for teens, who are undergoing rapid growth and appearance changes, and taking new interest in the way they look. How they feel about their appearance is important, since body image can be such a big part of self-esteem during the teen years.

As a parent, you want to teach that there’s much more to people than appearance. You want your teen’s self-image to include personality, character, abilities, and his or her unique strengths and interests. Parents want their teens to appreciate and care for Continue reading »

Kids get to play and they don’t have jobs, but they still have plenty to worry about. Stress from things like school and social situations can feel overwhelming for kids, particularly if they don’t have healthy strategies to cope with strong feelings and solve everyday problems.

A recent KidsHealth® KidsPoll showed that kids deal with stress in both healthy and unhealthy ways, and while they may not initiate a conversation about what’s bothering them, they do want their parents to reach out and help them cope with their feelings.

But it’s not always easy for parents to know how to connect with a child who’s feeling stressed.

Here are a few ideas:

Notice out loud. Tell your child when you notice something he or she might be feeling. (”It seems like you’re still mad about what happened at the playground”). This shouldn’t Continue reading »

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