Stress and Kids
Video Transcript
HANSA BHARGAVA:
What's the most important issue
that affects kids today?
SANDRA HASSINK: The most important issue affecting children is actually stress, and by that I mean I think childhood today is a much more stressful event than it has been in the past.
As a parent, I felt it.
As a pediatrician, I feel it.
Children have a lot more incoming information than they ever had before.
I think they have a lot of sources of information.
They see ways of life globally now, and I think for the developing child, that can be stressful, unless parents really sort of put this in context for them and help them mediate it.
HANSA BHARGAVA: Are there any tips that you would give parents to lower that stress level?
Is it cutting down exposure to the news?
Is it talking to them more?
What would you say?
SANDRA HASSINK: I think it's being aware from the very earliest days that children are really paying attention, paying attention to what you do as a parent, paying attention to their environment.
So not taking for granted that the environment's just going to go over the child's head, or the child isn't really attending to what's happening either on the TV or in your family.
So the role of the adult here is to filter that somewhat.
Pay attention to what's on the media.
Look at the content your child's watching.
Sit down and watch the show with the child.
Build on the relationship you have with your child so that you're communicating all the time so that when the child is exposed to things they have questions about, they know who they can ask.
Ways to do that are, for example, preserving the family meal at night, which is an ideal place to go over the day, to mull over what the child's exposed to during the day, to help put that in the context of the family, and to explain things maybe the child has questions about.
So I think parents just need to be there and be present and be more aware that children are taking it all in all the time and that your role as a parent is really to help them understand what it is that's happening around them.
SANDRA HASSINK: The most important issue affecting children is actually stress, and by that I mean I think childhood today is a much more stressful event than it has been in the past.
As a parent, I felt it.
As a pediatrician, I feel it.
Children have a lot more incoming information than they ever had before.
I think they have a lot of sources of information.
They see ways of life globally now, and I think for the developing child, that can be stressful, unless parents really sort of put this in context for them and help them mediate it.
HANSA BHARGAVA: Are there any tips that you would give parents to lower that stress level?
Is it cutting down exposure to the news?
Is it talking to them more?
What would you say?
SANDRA HASSINK: I think it's being aware from the very earliest days that children are really paying attention, paying attention to what you do as a parent, paying attention to their environment.
So not taking for granted that the environment's just going to go over the child's head, or the child isn't really attending to what's happening either on the TV or in your family.
So the role of the adult here is to filter that somewhat.
Pay attention to what's on the media.
Look at the content your child's watching.
Sit down and watch the show with the child.
Build on the relationship you have with your child so that you're communicating all the time so that when the child is exposed to things they have questions about, they know who they can ask.
Ways to do that are, for example, preserving the family meal at night, which is an ideal place to go over the day, to mull over what the child's exposed to during the day, to help put that in the context of the family, and to explain things maybe the child has questions about.
So I think parents just need to be there and be present and be more aware that children are taking it all in all the time and that your role as a parent is really to help them understand what it is that's happening around them.