Today I had a long conversation with a friend about how to help her toddler cope with the new environment of swimming lessons. New space, big huge pool with weird smelly water in it, way too many people both big and little, huge showers; if you imagine being in his place it must be a big scary nightmare!
Then I questioned why we would think he shouldn’t feel that way. When I experience anything new I go through a multitude of misgivings. Just yesterday we drove in to the “big” city. I was a nervous wreck. I hadn’t been in traffic for a while, or around lots of people. My anxiety level was extremely high.
So I looked up kids and stress on the web. I found a wonderful page that actually used our not too long ago ABC theme and listed great ideas to use with your kids or grandkids. As I read through the list I realized the list was how to deal with all of our anxiety, young or old, and many to use on animals as well.
These are all great points to keep for reference. I don’t have any kids in the house at the moment, but I am going to follow this advice in my own life when anxiety and stress try to knock me over.
This list is from www.stressfreekids.com
“Reducing stress can be as easy as ABC for you and your family. This ABC list makes it fun for children to pick a letter, read,
and implement a tip that will reduce stress for the day. When children step through the academic door to learning they also
open Pandora’s Box of stressors. Preschool, elementary school, middle school, high school, or college. It is never to early or
late to fill your child’s backpack with the ABCs of decreasing stress.Parenting expert Michele Borba suggests: Print this out
and place on your refrigerator. Have the kids choose a letter each day and focus on the tip!
A- Affirmations = Positive Statements= Less Stress
B- Be aware of over-scheduling
C- Counteract stress with relaxation and stress management techniques
D- Deep breathing will decrease anger and anxiety
E- Exhale and say ahhhh….
F- Focus on relaxation and sleep will follow
G- Go for a slow family walk
H- Hope will decrease anxiety and fear
I- Imagine a positive outcome
J- Juggle less
K- Keep it simple, keep it fun
L- Laughter is a stress reducer
M- Music calms, soothes, and uplifts
N- Negative thoughts can be replaced with positive
O- Organizing eliminates chaos and frustration
P- Playing is essential
Q- Quiet time is part of life
R- Relaxation can be incorporated into each day
S- Stop the chatter in your head
T- Teens or toddler. We all need downtime and coping skills
U- Understand that a stressed life means something is out of balance
V- Visualizing increases creativity
W- Waste time and be happy about it
X- XOXO kids, teens, we all relax with a hug or a kiss
Y- Young or old can learn stress management
Z- Zap stress, anxiety, fear…Live in joy, hope, balance ”
Seasoned 
You are so right that we need to imagine.what new places and activities look like to little kids. We always try to take our grandkids to places like the pool before the first lesson so they can look around and see the activity before they feel pushed into it. I suppose that coukd be seen as overcoddling, but they’ve each participated willingly in many different activities, and swimming lessons was one of the most successful.
Thanks for the VERY helpful list – for me AND my 5th grade grandson. I’m going to make up little “mantra” cards for him to use when he’s feeling overwhelmed during the school day.
I have to say, Linda, this morning as I scrolled through my Reader, I didn’t see any posts that “spoke” to me. When I was done, I thought, “that’s ok. I can come back later and Linda will have some good Monday conversation for me.” Thank you!
Aw, blush! One of my grandsons, 10 yrs old will be here next week, and I plan to share it with him. His mother, my daughter, and the friend of mine I was talking about, are so much alike. They are such go-getters and they have so much on their plates, they are so stressed as well and dragging these kids around. There is no down time. I worry they will never get to the age of retirement to relax.
I have these conversations with myself, in my head, all day long, but writing them down before I am off on another tangent is a challenge. I almost didn’t do a post yesterday, but I was winding yarn into balls for knitting and posted as a break in between.
I think the mantra cards are a great idea. That is what I am doing with my ABC’s I did in April also. Now that you gave me Zentangles, I want to do an alphabet in that as well.
We do simply try to cram too much in. The 30s and 40s are pressure-packed decades, and health will eventually take a toll. I hope your daughter will get to the point many of us do when health and time become greater priorities than some of the other “expecteds”.
I wish I was coming to visit – between your garden, animals, location and all your various projects I bet your grandson will love the change for awhile.
Yup – chatting in my head all day long just like you – especially while biking. Why can’t someone invent a mind-to-computer transfer so my blogging is complete at the end of the ride?!?
I must say, my thoughts are much more serene now that I’ve met so many other positive bloggers. I feel like parts of me are living with each of you and that feels good!
Yes, I plan to tangled the alphabet for 2015 Ato Z introductory letters, but Laurel’s gorgeous renditions are giving me pause. I remind myself it’s for me; not to compete or impress others. And all I can do is what my trsining, practice and aging infirmities allow me to do.