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I think being a child can be pretty tough at any time; I know I struggled a lot at certain ages, but I really feel for kids growing up in today’s world with social media and all of the pressures they face now.
As a parent, it is scary too, knowing that your children will want to use social media and go online with all of their friends even before they are really ready to handle it or are officially supposed to use the different platforms.
Ava, at ten years old, loves playing Roblox with her friends online but it is only in the last six months or so that we have let her and I still worry about it and make sure I check her messages and all of it regularly. She does get affected by anything negative that anyone online says to her or her friends and so it is something I continue to watch and re-evaluate. I just find it hard when she loves it so much and being able to chat to her friends outside of school.
Not only that but my daughter is a worrier (something I really wish I hadn’t passed on to her!) and so she can be really affected by anything negative, whether that’s being told off for something minor at school, something awful she hears in the news or thinking her friend has fallen out with her. At night she gets scared that something bad is going to happen and she is also very, very worried about dying as well as her loved ones dying and that mostly manifests itself at bedtime and so she panics and can take hours until she finally settles enough to fall asleep.
It’s so hard to know how to deal with it all and to make it better for her. I obviously try to distract her, discuss exciting things we will be doing, let her know how much she is loved and cared about, and discuss her worries in the evenings, but she can still get so worked up and I hate it for her.
We have also bought some books or borrowed some from the library that I have seen that we can read together at bedtime. She loves to read and books can really help to either distract her for a little while or calm her down or help to encourage her to talk about her feelings and learn how to deal with them.
We’ve currently been reading books about lovely and positive world stories, stories about animals (she is obsessed with animals and knows so much more about them than I do!), Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls, and specific kids’ books on worries. I love books that can help to build her up, build her confidence, help her learn to deal with things or just inspire her, and now we have a new one to add to our collection.
This one is particularly exciting as it is by my cousin-in-law!
Feelings: Poems For Kids & Their Grown-ups is a lovely new book by my (also lovely) husband’s cousin, Katie. The book of poems and accompanying drawings helps you to explore feelings and emotions in a fun and accessible way.
The night before we first read it, Ava had really struggled to get to sleep and it took hours for her to finally fall asleep meaning she was very tired on her first day back at school.
The next night we looked at some of the poems in ‘Feelings’ and Ava chose a poem for her to read out loud and one for me, and then I rapped (I use the term loosely) the ‘Confidence Rap’ and we both beatboxed (again, in loose terms!) in between the verses.
It really helped to distract her from her thoughts and worries and she enjoyed us spending five minutes reading poems and talking about them together and she fell asleep much more calmly, and much, much faster and she said how much she loved the poems. She has since then asked to read some poems together each night and she’s told her Dad that she loves Katie’s book!
There is so much to talk about and explore in each poem and it really helps children to think about their feelings, acknowledge and accept them and learn how to deal with them too. Plus my rapping is coming on in leaps and bounds!!
Children can read the poems alone or with an adult, but they are really nice to read aloud with the rhyme and rhythm of each poem. The book is aimed at kids aged 8-12 but I definitely think it would suit younger children who could really benefit from it too, especially as there are fun and colourful illustrations throughout the book (which Katie did herself!) so it could really be read to even quite young children.
It would also be very beneficial to read in school classrooms and open up a chat about understanding feelings and emotions. Katie used to be an English teacher and more recently became certified in promoting positive mental health in educational settings. She now teaches yoga and mindfulness to children in schools and in her local community through her yoga company ‘Imagine Breathe Achieve‘.
So she is perfectly placed to write this book as she really knows and understands how to encourage children to open up and express themselves, manage uncomfortable feelings and how to help to develop behaviour habits that work for them.
It’s a lovely book and I think it’s very cool for Ava to own a book by a family member, and we are really enjoying reading the poems together. I love how it is helping us to explore and better manage the thoughts and feelings of a ten-year-old, particularly at bedtime.
Get it here: Feelings: Poems For Kids & Their Grown-ups
Katie sent me her book for this post, but all words and opinions are my own or Ava’s. See my full disclosure policy here: About this site.
Welcome to Birds and Lilies! I'm Lou: mother, blogger and freelance writer. This is my lifestyle blog, where I talk about motherhood, infertility and IVF, beauty, my love for food and wine, as well as my thoughts about stuff, and our real-life and travel adventures.
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