Grandma & Grandpa's Worry Jar
All children experience times of anxiety and worry. To ignore or dismiss the signs of worry in
our children is at best to miss a teachable moment and at worst it leaves them alone
and powerless with their fears and worries.
As adults we share the things that worry us ~ those things
that wakes us up at night or that intrudes upon our consciousness during
moments of inactivity ~ we talk about them with friends, therapist, and we
write them down.
Children experience worry and stress and have the same need
to express them, to share.
Enter
Grandma and Grandpa’s Worry Jar
It is a simple strategy with a powerful impact. All it takes is a jar with a lid and slips of
paper. Sit down with a worried child and
let them talk and offer them the worry jar. They can write down or draw a picture of
the worry and place it in Grandma’s worry jar.
Key in the implementation of the worry jar is a sincere
promise by grandparents that they will keep the worry safe in the jar until the
child wants it back. We are not
promising to make it go way or that it will be Ok because we know this may not
be possible or true all we do is hold it for them.
And be prepared for them to want to take their worries out of the jar on occasion to look at or to throw away.
And be prepared for them to want to take their worries out of the jar on occasion to look at or to throw away.
In this way we are teaching and modeling for them two time
tested strategies in dealing with worry and stress, talking and/or writing the things that worry us down.
Grandma Snyder
©2013-2014 twosnydergirls
No comments:
Post a Comment