7 Ways to Check in with Your Child’s Mental Health this Winter
Winter brings a few challenges for many people, including children. Kids may feel a bit blue and stressed as temperatures drop — maybe they slept in until noon or spent the whole day inside their room. Learn why it’s essential to do mental health check-ins with your kid and how to support them in this challenging time.
Why Do Mental Health Check-Ins With Children?
A mental health check-in with your kid means asking them about their feelings, mood, or thoughts. It can be as simple as a conversation during dinner or a car ride home. This is especially important this season because kids and teens are more likely to experience seasonal affective disorder (SAD), an issue linked to lower serotonin levels due to fewer hours of daylight.
7 Ways to Ease Seasonal Depression Among Kids
Discover seven effective ways to check in with your kid’s mental health this colder season.
1. Spend Quality Time
Plan activities that don’t require much energy like watching movies, making bracelets, or playing board games. Clear your schedule and fill several days with intimate moments so kids can relax, limit their screen time, and enjoy the moment.
2. Get Out and About
It’s easy to skip exercise when it’s cold outside. However, a quick walk outside can help boost energy levels and mood to keep your child productive at school. You can also host yoga classes in your backyard every morning so the whole family gets extra sunlight together. After that, talk about how the practice made them feel.
3. Promote Healthy Sleeping Habits
The cold weather makes it so easy to sleep in. You want to ensure your child isn’t getting too little or too much sleep to ensure they have sufficient energy in school. Help them fall asleep and wake up at the same time daily to keep a consistent sleeping schedule. You can do mental check-ins during breakfast to assess where they’re at.
4. Encourage Social Activities
Help your child stay connected with friends and family. Host indoor get-togethers or sign up for a virtual program they could do together. Depending on your kid’s interest, it could be a dance program or an arts class. Let them know you understand how challenging this time could be for them to go out with their peers.
5. Help Organize School Tasks
Children are at a higher risk of experiencing seasonal fatigue during winter, which may cause poor academic performance, appetite changes, and extreme fatigue. Fortunately, you can support your child in many ways, including pausing an extracurricular activity.
If you have a teen working on college applications, help them find their areas of interest so they won’t be anxious about their future. Remember that it’s not all about the grades. In fact, around 90% of students who get 4.0 and above GPAs and high SAT scores are rejected by top universities like Harvard. You can help your child discover what they’re best at and assist in essay writing.
6. Create a Safe Space for Expression
Expressing your feelings shows your kids that you trust them and encourages them to trust you with their feelings, too. For instance, you can share things that stressed you out at work and ask about your kid’s day after. Prompts like “Tell me something exciting that happened” or naming their emotions can help you gauge if they’re feeling anxious or depressed.
7. Support Journaling Practices
Writing can be beneficial if your kid is struggling to verbalize their feelings. Encourage them to list things that made them sad, anxious, or happy. This can help boost their self-confidence and emotional intelligence.
Adopt These Habits Today
Whether your child is dealing with sleep issues or school problems, ensure there’s a safe space for them to communicate what they are feeling. That way, you can help them manage negative feelings before they worsen.
Cora Gold is the Editor-in-Chief of women’s lifestyle magazine, Revivalist. She has a passion for writing about ways to live a happy, healthy, and fulfilling life, especially for new moms.