How to Deal with Middle School Blues
10 Aug 2011 Leave a Comment
in Family, kids, school Tags: emotional intelligence, Family, kids, life, parenting
Oy vey! Perhaps you’ve noticed the gap in posts this past week. I’ve been prepping both my daughter and myself for the start of middle school in a couple of weeks. She is entering 7th grade and I’m finding it’s pretty stressful for me. She’s seems cool about it on the surface but I’m pretty sure she’s getting nervous too. She is starting at a new school and she won’t be with any of her friends from elementary school so she won’t have that internal support network to lean on.
This age for girls is really turning out to be challenging. I want her to be resilient and have a high level of self-esteem but I’m not always sure how to accomplish this. I recently started reading Building Emotional Intelligence: Techniques to Cultivate Inner Strength in Children by Linda Lantieri. These techniques are supposed to help your child learn how to respond to stressful situations in a healthy and positive way. I have not yet implemented the techniques but I will keep you posted. So far, I am enjoying the book.
Here are a few things I thought were valuable that I wanted to share with you for children ages 12 and up:
- Adolescents have a strong need for the sort self-determination they associate with adulthood.
Don’t try to control their decisions. Suggest things, present them with options and information so they can learn how to make informed decisions.
- Kids this age have very fragile self-esteem.
Give your kids the time to learn and master new skills. Enhancing self-esteem can be obtained by mastering new skills. Help set your child up for success.
- Model what you want your children to be or do.
The old adage “Do as I say, not as I do” doesn’t work. Kids will follow your example. Your deeds are more powerful than your words. Be consistent in your words and actions and then try to model how you want your children to be.
Wish me luck! I’ll check in with you on our progress as the school year goes on.
